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Kanha travel guide

Famous for its huge meadows and tall sal forests, Kanha is India’s largest national park, a much loved and well managed conservation jewel in the heart of the country. Most people come for its Bengal tigers, but leave having spotted so much more, from rare deer to huge bison. Our Kanha National Park travel guide has all the highlights.

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Kanha National Park map & highlights

Often described as India’s greatest wildlife reserve, Kanha National Park is huge. Covering around 2,000sq km, it’s an undulating landscape of plateaus, forests and sprawling, grassy plains. It’s also considered to be the best administered park in India, with active conservation programmes not just for tigers, but for the barasingha swamp deer, and this is the only place in the world where the population has adapted to live on hard ground. Established in 1955, Kanha became a tiger reserve in 1973 through the Project Tiger initiative and is famously where biologist and conservationist George Schaller conducted early tiger research in the 1960s.

At Kanha, we had a fantastic encounter with a male tiger. He wandered up the road ahead, glancing back as if to make sure we were following.

Today around 100 of these beautiful creatures live here and, along with equal numbers of leopard, prey on the sambar, chital and swamp deer that congregate in its meadows. Kanha’s size means it’s a little harder to spot tigers than in nearby Bandhavgarh, but here you can roam wide and deep, reconnecting with the landscape that inspired The Jungle Book and gaining a more rounded safari experience.

Find out more in our Kanha National Park travel guide.

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Kanha National Park is...

impressive. Covering around 2,000sq km, it’s not only vast, it’s tightly managed and boasts a good record on conservation.

Kanha National Park isn't...

somewhere to rush. You can’t bomb in, bag a tiger and leave. Take time to discover its wildlife and landscapes.

Things to do in Kanha National Park…

For a range of contrasting wildlife experiences, you can combine Kanha with other national parks. Kanha sits between Bandhavgarh (six hours’ drive away), which boasts the highest density of tigers of all India’s reserves and Pench (four hours’ drive away), which is home to a thriving population of leopards and wonderful birdlife. Bring the children. Many African safaris impose age restrictions, but organised tours in Kanha rarely have a minimum age. In fact, children often get a discount. All but the tiniest kids can enjoy a safari here. Accommodation is generally right by the park gates, so no long drives to reach the wildlife, and safaris last around three hours, so shouldn’t tax a child’s patience. While you can’t promise a tiger on a family holiday in Kanha, a host of Jungle Book characters awaits to charm your children, and lodges with pools and pleasant gardens give kids the chance to let off steam, too. Organised holidays to Kanha often pack in morning and evening game drives on each day’s stay, but remember to relax, too. Bouncing around in a jeep for seven hours a day can be exhausting, with early wake ups for dawn excursions, too, so perhaps skip the odd drive in favour of chilling at your lodge, taking a guided walk in the buffer forest outside the reserve or joining an optional village visit.

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Things not to do in Kanha National Park …

Come just for the tigers. Around 100 Bengal tigers live in Kanha, but you need a good guide, good luck and a good number of game drives to spot one. Rather than being focused on tigers, look out for the 200 species of birds and 22 species of large mammals, including wild dogs, leopards, bison and the rare barasingha deer, with an unusual subspecies found only here. Take time to soak up Kanha’s unique atmosphere, too. Thanks to its size and limited vehicle numbers, it’s often possible to drive for a long time without seeing another jeep.

You’ll want to capture the magic of Kanha, but don’t forget to put your camera down sometimes. For a truly immersive wildlife experience, forget about photography and concentrate on soaking up the sights, sounds and atmosphere. Remember, too, that you may only see one tiger on your trip and getting a great photo is always tricky; gaze in awe rather than grapple with your camera.

Leave booking to the last minute. You can’t just rock up at Kanha and join a safari. The number of jeeps allowed into the park each day is strictly limited and demand for game drives is high, so book well in advance with a tour operator, who can secure your accommodation as well as your park permits and safari slots.

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Written by Joanna Simmons

Kanha travel guide