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Introduction

Kanha Tiger Reserve has an extent of 940 km² is located in the Madhya Pradesh districts of Mandla and Balaghat. It is located between latitudes 22° 1′ 5″ and 22° 27′ 48″ and between longitudes 80° 26′ 10″ and 81° 4′ 40″. The Madhya Pradesh Maikal Range of the Satpura Hills, part of the Central Indian Highlands, is adjacent to Kanha National Park. The national park is hailed as one of the best wildlife locations in the world In 1879, Kanha National Park was designated a reserve forest, and in 1933 it was reclassified as a wildlife sanctuary. In June 1955, it received a further upgrade to the status of national park, and in 1973, it received the designation of tiger reserve. Kanha National Park is an excellent habitat for a variety of wild animals, including the powerful tiger, the hard ground barasingha, many species of plant, bird, reptile and insect. Due to an enabling infrastructure, , this reserve has captured the attention of many tourists from around the world. Two entrance gates, one at Khatia-Kisli and the other at Mukki Gate, are located at the park's opposite ends. These two gates are separated by 40 km. The tiger reserve's perimeter reaches Chhattisgarh.

Management Strengths:

Situated in Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh, Kanha Tiger Reserve is a typical geo-physiographical representative of the Central Indian Highlands. Nestling in the northern slopes of the Maikal Hills of the Satpuras, the tiger reserve and its surroundings were once proud witnesses to an amazing era of conservation history. The Kanha landscape chronicles a glorious history of wildlife conservation and is potentially rich in natural heritage. Besides the viable population of tigers and, till recently, the only world population of the hard ground barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii branderi), a wide range of plant and animal species considerably add to the significance of this landscape. All the floral and faunal attributes make the tiger reserve a significant repository of biodiversity in the country.
Kanha presently also serves as a self-sustained source population for tigers and ungulates that can repopulate some of the other tiger reserves and protected areas in Central India such as Panna, Bandhavgarh, Nauradehi, Satpura and Satkosia. Kanha is also important from the point of view of the species recovery programme for the barasingha. Similar recovery programmes have also been done for the gaur and blackbuck in the past.
Kanha is well connected with Achanakmar Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh (in the north-east) and Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh (in the south-west) and with Pench and Nawegaon Nagzira tiger reserves in Maharashtra. This strong connectivity makes Kanha an important tiger habitat. The Kanha–Achanakmar connectivity is important for the survival of tigers in Central India. The Kanha–Pench corridor, though fragmented, is used by tigers frequently. The Kanha–Pench corridor is one of the first wildlife movement corridors in the country to have a Corridor Management Plan involving all the stakeholders, including line departments of the government, civil society organizations, academic and research institutions and local communities. Maintaining the permeability of these corridors would be key to the persistence of tigers in the Central Indian landscape in the future.
Geographically, Maikal Range is the most important terrain feature, running along the eastern boundary of the core zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve, forming the watershed between the rivers Narmada and Mahanadi. This hill-range continues to the west within the core zone as the Bhaisanghat Ridge, bifurcating the Narmada catchment between the Banjar river, to the southwest and west, and the Halon river , to the east and the north-east. Many spurs branch out to the north from the main Maikal and Bhaisanghat ridges, and divide the headwaters of the Halon into a number of tributaries, viz., the Phen, Gourdhuni, Kashmiri and Gondla. Bhaisanghat Ridge bifurcates near Bamhnidadar, with the main spur running to the north, while its branch, running west, sub-divides the Banjar catchment between the Banjar itself and its tributary, the Sulkum. All these ensure the perpetuity of the water security in the region.
The Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, conducted a study of the ecosystem services of Kanha Tiger Reserve and reported that besides conserving wildlife, this reserve also provides a range of associated economic, social, cultural and spiritual benefits. A total of 25 such ecosystem services were assessed by IIFM, and it was found that for every rupee spent on management costs, benefits of approximately Rs.273 were realized in and around the tiger reserve. Nearly 10% of the flow benefits from the reserve accrued at the local level, 49% at the national level and 41% at the global level. The estimated benefits from the ecosystem services of Kanha were valued at Rs.16,451 million.
The tiger rewilding programme carried out in Kanha has proved out to be crucial for the recovery and augmentation of tigers in low-density tiger areas in Central India such as Satpura, Panna and Nauradehi.
The park has an effective protection strategy with a fairly good network of manned patrolling camps in the core and buffer. On an average, approximately 4 lakh kilometres of foot patrolling is being conducted annually by the frontline staff in the tiger reserve. The physical infrastructure of the anti-poaching camps is well maintained. The dog squad has been useful in detecting 31 wildlife crime cases in the last 5 years.
The park management has successfully relocated 37 forest villages outside the core zone between 1969 and 2016. The relocation has helped the Kanha management to reclaim 8052.00 ha. of wildlife habitats. While there was earlier no attractive and concrete government policy as such, the relocation of all these villages was carried out in different years and in a phased manner, with desired/appropriate inputs, such as site clearance, house construction, ploughing of fields, approach roads and drinking water facilities, provided at the new sites of resettlement. With the gradual change of status of this forest tract and managerial interventions and reduction of biotic pressure with village relocation, these old pasture lands have mostly morphed into excellent grasslands with a wide range of palatable grass species for herbivores.
Kanha Tiger Reserve has been a stronghold for wildlife research since the 1960s. Besides in-house studies, various long-term collaborative and institutional studies have also been conducted in the core zone. Such institutions include various universities, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Indian Space Research Organization, Zoological Survey of India, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur, State Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur and Wildlife Disease Diagnostic & Research Centre, Jabalpur. Over time, the reserve has developed a good information database based upon a number of valuable studies, research programmes and documentation. Phase III and Phase IV monitoring of tigers, co-predators and prey is being conducted regularly at Kanha Tiger Reserve. Documentation of other wildlife has been carried out using M-STrIPES, transect monitoring and bird and butterfly surveys.
The park has an excellent integration with local communities and NGOs. Local communities are largely supportive towards the park. Most of the eco-development committees are functional and adequately funded. HThere is fair representation of women, and the EDCs generate employment for local communities. The school and dispensary run by the management in Mukki are excellent initiatives for eliciting larger public support towards tiger conservation.
The management has also set up a waste segregation and bio-composting plant near Mocha that caters to all the vegetable and food wastes from the resorts around the reserve. This is an innovative initiative and needs to be replicated in other similar areas. Many private resorts have also developed their own system of rainwater harvesting and a waste disposal mechanism, which is encouraging.

Management Weaknesses:

Reports of left-wing extremism are a matter of concern.
The pastoral history, regressive natural grasslands and successional intricacies impact a substantial part of the grassland habitat. The infestation of the grasslands with invasive weeds and coarse grass species is reducing the fodder value for the ungulates.
Poaching, although it is of a limited magnitude, seems to be a continuing problem, particularly on the periphery of the Tiger Reserve.
Delays in fund release hinder the park authorities from achieving the targets of grassland management, weed eradication, etc.
Compensation for crop losses is dealt with by the revenue department, and there are delays, which causes resentment among the villagers.
Approximately 50 km of the Chilpi–Mukki highway passes without any wildlife mitigation through a large section of the core zone of the Tiger Reserve.

Immediate Actionable Points:

The Government of Madhya Pradesh should immediately attempt to resolve the issue of left wing extremism in the tiger reserve by restoring/improving the law and order situation. This has to be prioritized before the morale of the frontline forest staff gets adversely impacted and the management loses its control over the tiger reserve.
Kanha Tiger Reserve is one of the very few reserves in the country where the management interventions are based on robust scientific information. The Tiger Reserve has been managed under the visionary and competent leadership of wildlife managers, and their legacy has been transferred to the present management. The dogma of "information–experimentation–learning–expanded implementation" has largely been followed by the tiger reserve management for many years, and it has made the management very effective. This system needs to be sustained.
A grassland management plan with dynamic monitoring and integration with research institutions needs to be taken up on a priority basis.
Dedicated specialized anti-poaching squads need to be established for curbing poaching in the buffer and periphery of the tiger reserve.
The issue of restoration of corridors and an eco-sensitive zone needs to be taken up with various stakeholders on a priority basis, including territorial divisions, local communities present in these areas, the district administration and other line departments. The land should not be diverted to uses that are not compatible with tiger conservation objectives.
The management should carry out regular security audits of the park as per NTCA protocols.
A single channel mechanism needs to be adopted for payment of crop damage compensation. The forest department should be made the nodal agency for avoiding delays in payment. This will foster greater tolerance among the local communities towards wildlife.
In recent years, elephant herds have migrated into Kanha. This has already started human–elephant interactions, leading to crop damage and occasional property damage. Currently, the quantum is small, and so it is not a major problem. However, with time, the problem is likely to escalate. The management should take immediate appropriate action in this regard.

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Kanha Tiger Reserve

Introduction

Management Strengths:

Management Weaknesses:

Immediate Actionable Points:

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