Kanha Tiger Reserve

 Monday March 11

Today we followed the same basic schedule as at Bandhavgarh: meet for early coffee and a snack at 5:30, leave between 5:45-6:00, game drive 6:30-11:30 with a Bush breakfast at (nominally) 8:30, lunch at the lodge at 1:30, afternoon game drive 3:00-6:30, dinner at 7:30.  Most of the schedule is dictated by Park rules, but the breakfast timing depends on what is going on. We intended to drive towards the breakfast spot at 8:15 today. The animals thought differently, keeping us busy with them.  We did have breakfast eventually — at about 10:00!

Kanha is the only place you can see Barasingha: a type of large swamp deer named for the twelve points on its antlers.  In the 1960s the population had dwindled to about 66 animals, but careful habitat and breeding programs has brought the numbers up to 900 animals today. Barasingha are grazers; while most of Kanha is  densely forested, there are open grasslands from the areas where there used to be villages before the establishment of the Park in 1973. After the villagers were moved out of the park, the grasslands were retained as part of the Barasingha recovery program. 

This morning was a case of “hear an alarm call, scurry towards that location”, then “ encounter another Jeep that has new information and scurry there”. Some jeeps saw a mature male tiger, some saw a young male tiger, we saw her sister (our third tiger!!) and some jeeps saw no tigers at all. This afternoon was similar; we had a clearer view of the young female tiger, and a glimpse of another tiger sleeping in the marsh grass, showing 

first the top of his head and then one leg, but nothing more. That gives us, we think, five 

sightings of four different tigers in seven game drives.

Once a year, the forest management folks burn dry leaves along the side of the park roads, to create a wider fire break for the hot dry summer. There are few natural fires as rain always follows lightning, but there are occasional human-caused accidental fires. Driving on the narrow park roads between walls of flame on either side ( although at most a foot high) made us really appreciate forest fire crews.

Pictured: young female tiger (about 18 months old), Barasingha, Golden Jackal, coppersmith barbet