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| Resort in Kanha |
There was no direct flight from Mumbai to the city of Jabalpur in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India for our onward journey to one of the best maintained national park and wild life reserve in Asia-Kanha National Reserve.
Hence, we took a flight to Nagpur which was 270 km from the park.
While the entire country sizzles in summer with the temperature rising up to 40 degrees Celsius, on that day, the morning in Mumbai was pleasant, the roads relatively less crowded and the breeze a welcome change to a previous hot and humid evening.
Tommy Singh was waiting at the departure gate. We met and hugged each other. Both of us were excited and were looking forward to our adventure to Rudyard Kipling's wonder land- Kanha as in his "Jungle Book".
The jeep(Gypsy) was waiting at Nagpur airport and we started on a 7 hours journey to Kanha National Park immediately. It was a beautiful drive till Seoni in the state of Madhya Pradesh where we had our lunch of egg bhurjee (minced omelet) and parathas (fried Indian pancake) washing it down with spiced butter milk. Wow! That was great!We reached at the second entrance gate of Kisli though we passed through another gate of Mukki and dumped ourselves at the most exotic, though small resort of "The Kipling Camp"amidst sparsely wooded grassy plateau and with an elephant tied to a wooden plank welcoming us! The resort had a rustic and an adventure written all over it's structure.
Next day we started around 10 in the morning on a jeep safari. The summer had turned the landscape into a dry land of high grass with dense forested trees of 'sal' and bamboos. It was an awesome sight.
The first wild animal we saw was a 'Barasingha'- a huge deer with twelve horns which was only found in Kanha. My goodness! What a lovely creature! We also came across other beautiful herds of spotted deer, the rare four horned antelopes, few wild dogs, wild boars, wild animals and were extremely lucky to see a panther on a tree!!
Stretching over 940 km, with the forest of Banjar and Halon valley, Kanha is an adventure beyond imagination. However, as it always happens, the King eluded us on that day.
The day 2 was of an elephant safari and it turned out to be 'once in life time' experience! We could watch beautiful birds with our naked eyes and through binocular. The cattle egret, black ibis, hawk eagle and red-wattled lapwing to name few. We were told, there were 200
species of birds!
We were wondering in the meadows and were on a narrow path when suddenly the elephant stopped with a jerk. We knew. My body became numb, breathing accelerated and heart started pounding against my chest! And then we saw.
The King of the jungle, the mighty beast, the great Royal Bengal Tiger with it's majestic beauty with an unparalleled grace crossing the path at about 50 yards in front of us! The jungle stopped to breathe. And we too. Very quietly we watched the spectacle of the nature.
Then we headed to 'Shravental' an important watering hole where we saw the water fowls and then to what was called a 'sunset point' which was the most beautiful section of the park.
"I am two with nature"
Woody Allen
Route:
- From Delhi: flight to Jabalpur then by road to Khatia Kisli Gate at Kanha (160 km)
- From Munbai: flight to Nagpur then by road to Seoni-Nainpur-Chiraidongri-Kisli ( 270 km)
- Trains are regular to Jabalpur and Nagpur from any part of India
Stay: