Kanha

Declared in 1955, Kanha is frequently cited as one of the principal geographical inspirations for Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, whose author never visited the area himself but drew on accounts and images of the forests of Madhya Pradesh to set Mowgli's adventures. The park saved the central Indian swamp barasingha from complete extinction, its population having fallen below 100 animals in the 1970s and now numbering several hundred, thanks to a habitat recovery programme reckoned a model in Indian conservation.