How To Reach Kanha National Park

Kanha National Park is located in two districts of MP. These are Mandla and Balaghat. This national park is a tiger reserve as well. It is spread over a large expanse of forest and grassland where besides tigers, jackals and wild boar can also be spotted. It is also home to diverse species of predatory birds and visitors may be lucky to see wild animals gathering at different watering holes within the park. This is a prestigious national park of India that has good road, train and air connections with most of the parts of the country. The best way to reach Kanha National Park is to fly down to Jabalpur, which is 160 km away and thereafter drive down to the park in about 4 hr.

You can travel to Kanha by road from Nagpur and most parts of MP. The roads are well maintained generally and very scenic for most of the way within MP. One traveller who drove from Indore to Kanha recently writes that he did not find a “single pothole from Indore to Kanha, excellent roads in MP.” He took 12 hours to cover the 624 km distance between Indore and Kanha. You will take around 6-7 hr to cover the drive between Nagpur and Kanha, a distance of around 300 km.

If you take a flight to Delhi from abroad or elsewhere in India, you could catch any one of the six trains to Jabalpur from New Delhi. The distance of 906 km takes around 14-18hr. If you are travelling from Kolkata there are 15 weekly trains to Jabalpur. From Mumbai there are 41 trains to Jabalpur. You will therefore not have any problem reaching Kanha, which is just 160 km from Jabalpur.

Jabalpur Airport is known as Dumna Airport, which is 25 km from the city. Dumna is the third busiest among the airports of Madhya Pradesh. According to available information, Jabalpur has flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Belgaum among other cities.

The concept of getting around in Kanha National Park is very simple. You can take one or more Jeep Safari if you wish to see wild animals in the park. There are other trips organized by the Park such as cycling, birding walk and nature walk. One can also take a joy ride on an elephant during the morning hours. Night safaris have been introduced recently for avid wildlife enthusiasts. These last for two hours. Nature trails are on foot and these are accompanied by a trained naturalist who will guide you regarding the flora, insects, butterflies, small mammals and birds.