Tigers Galore at Kanha and Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India

Male tiger at Kanha National Park, India

My sister, Soma, recently went for a trip to Kanha National Park and Pench in Madhyapradesh. And guess what...she sighted not one ...not two ...not even three...but seven tigers!

She is so lucky, she sighted tigers in both the national parks she visited, Kanha and Pench. At Kancha National park, the chances of sighting a tiger is very high. Though in her case she spotted the maximum number of tigers in Pench!

Soma tells me that she had given up any hopes of sighting a tiger, when all of a sudden, during one of her last safari trips (fifth safari), she sighted a male tiger in Kanha for over fifteen minutes!

Kanha National Park is located in Madhya Pradesh. The nearest airport is at Jabalpur (175 km). Soma and her group flew to Nagpur from Kolkata, and then hired a transport to take her to Kancha. Kanha has a rich habitat of many otehr animals like the Sloth bear, leopard, striped hyena, spotted dear, wild boar, jungle cat, jackal and a variety of monkeys. Over 200 spices of birds have been spotted in the park. Soma who is an avid birder spotted over sixty birds in Kanha which includes Indian Scimiter Babbler, Jungle Owlet, White-Naped Woodpecker. Soma of the other animals that she sighted in kanha were - Barking Deer, Barasingha, lots of Indian Bisons from close quarters, two playful Dholes, three baby jackals playing with each other, a Ruddy Mongoose, Tree Shrew, Flapshell Turtle.

Pench National Park is also in Madhya Pradesh, it is located in the Southern part of Madhya Pradesh. it is around 70 km from Nagpur, and around 275 kms from Kanha. There is a high population of Chital and Sambar in Pench.

She spotted a lot of birds in Pench too. Birds like the Crested Treeswift, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Eurasian Thicknee, White-eyed Buzzard ... The best part of her trip was spotting a tigress with five cubs ! The cubs were about seven months old and they were playing in the water and the mother of course was all protective about them.

Indian blackbird (Pench National Park)   Jungle Owlet (Kanha National Park)

Tigress at Pench National Park

I am uploading some pics that Soma sent me from this trip.I think summers are the best time to spot a tiger because that's when they come to the water bodies to quench their thirst. A rendezvous is most likely then. I must plan my next jungle trip to kancha and Pench, perhps next summers.Can't wait to go to the Jungles again. I need a break from the concrete Jungles. need to be in the midst of nature. I just love it. There is something wonderful about it!