Kanha Tiger Reserve
National park in Madhya Pradesh, India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kanha Tiger Reserve, also known as Kanha–Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two protected areas, Hallon and Banjar, of 250 and 300 km2 (97 and 116 sq mi), respectively. Kanha National Park was created on 1 June 1955 and was designated tiger reserve in 1973. Today, it encompasses an area of 940 km2 (360 sq mi) in the two districts Mandla and Balaghat.
| Kanha Tiger Reserve | |
|---|---|
 Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve | |
   | |
| Location | Madhya Pradesh, India |
| Nearest city | Mandla |
| Coordinates | 22°13′39″N 80°38′42″E |
| Area | 940 km2 (360 sq mi) |
| Created | 1933 (as Wildlife Sanctuary) 1955; (as National Park) 1974; (as Tiger Reserve) |
| Visitors | 213,804 (in 2022)[1] |
| Governing body | Madhya Pradesh Forest Department |
Together with a surrounding buffer zone of 1,067 km2 (412 sq mi) and the neighbouring 110 km2 (42 sq mi) Phen Sanctuary, it forms the Kanha Tiger Reserve, which is one of the biggest in the country.[2][3] This makes it the largest national park in central India.
The park hosts Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, sloth bear, barasingha and dhole. It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, Bhoorsingh the Barasingha.[4]
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Kanha Tiger Reserve is home to over 1000 species of flowering plants.[5] The lowland forest is a mixture of sal (Shorea robusta) and other mixed-forest trees, interspersed with meadows. The highland forests are tropical moist, dry deciduous type and of a completely different nature from bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) on slopes. A notable Indian ghost tree (Sterculia urens) can also be seen in the dense forest.[6]
Kanha Tiger Reserve hosts populations of Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, dhole, sloth bear, Bengal fox and Indian jackal. The barasingha is adapted to swampy areas. The gaur inhabits meadows and waterholes in the park.[7] Blackbuck has become very rare.[8] The reserve hosts around 300 species of birds and the most commonly seen birds are the black ibis, Asian green bee-eater, cattle egret, plum-headed parakeet, Indian pond heron, drongo, common teal, crested serpent eagle, Indian grey hornbill, Indian roller, lesser adjutant, little grebe, lesser whistling teal, minivet, Malabar pied hornbill, woodpeckers, pigeon, Indian paradise flycatcher, hill myna, Indian peafowl, red junglefowl, red-wattled lapwing, steppe eagle, Tickell's blue flycatcher, white-eyed buzzard, white-breasted kingfisher, white-browed fantail, wood shrikes, warblers, and vultures among many more.[9][10]
Reintroduction of barasingha
An exciting conservation effort in this national park is the reintroduction of barasingha. The gaur will be relocated to Bandhavgarh and some barasingha will be relocated to Satpura Tiger Reserve. The objective of this project is to introduce about 500 barasingha in this national park to eight or nine different locations. There is also a project to capture about twenty tigers and relocate them to Satpura Tiger Reserve.[11]
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Members of the Baiga tribe, a semi-nomadic tribe of central India that is reliant on the forest, lived in 28 villages that had been within Kanha National Park until 1968, when they were relocated. The relocation was part of an effort to maintain a critical tiger habitat.[12] The land to which they were relocated is barren and they now suffer from malnourishment.[12] The last of the villages to be relocated for the tiger habitat is in the core zone of the Kanha Tiger Reserve.[12] In January 2010, Baiga tribe were illegally evicted from the park without proper compensation by the government.[13]
In its efforts to maintain and restore tiger habitats, WWF-India has worked to create corridors that support the tigers and their prey, thereby stabilizing the tiger population. This includes efforts to prevent loss of life or property of humans, reduce human dependency on the forest, and reduce retaliatory killings of tigers when people have experienced losses.[14]
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