Kanha National Park is famous for
- (a)lions
- (b)cows
- (c)elephants
- (d)tigers
Correct — D, tigers. Kanha National Park, in the Maikal hills of Madhya Pradesh, is one of India's best-known tiger habitats and a Project Tiger reserve, celebrated for its Royal Bengal tigers roaming its sal forests and grassy meadows. Its landscape is popularly associated with Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book', though Kipling's 'Seeonee' setting points to the Seoni/Pench area.
- (a)lions — India's Asiatic lions survive only in the Gir forest of Gujarat, not in Kanha.
- (b)cows — A cow is domestic livestock, not the wildlife a national park is set up to protect.
- (c)elephants — Kanha is not an elephant park; wild elephants in India are concentrated in the north-east, the Western Ghats and forests like those around Corbett/Bandipur, not central Madhya Pradesh.
Kanha is a tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh — a state so rich in tigers it is often called the 'Tiger State' of India. Beyond tigers, Kanha is the last stronghold of the hard-ground Barasingha (swamp deer), the state animal of Madhya Pradesh, which was saved from near-extinction there. Matching a park to its flagship species (Gir–lion, Kaziranga–rhino, Kanha–tiger) is a staple exam skill.
The distractors are each tied to a different park or context — lions to Gir, elephants to other forests. Lock 'Kanha ↔ tiger (and hard-ground Barasingha)' and the rest are easy to rule out.
- Kanha National Park lies in Madhya Pradesh and is a Project Tiger reserve.
- It is famous for Royal Bengal tigers.
- It is the last refuge of the hard-ground Barasingha — Madhya Pradesh's state animal.
- Asiatic lions are found only in Gir (Gujarat), not Kanha.
- Linking Kanha with lions — lions are only in Gir, Gujarat
- Forgetting Kanha's second claim to fame: the hard-ground Barasingha
MPPSC and UPSC ask 'Park X is famous for …' or match parks to species/states. Anchor: Kanha (MP) = tiger, and the last home of the hard-ground Barasingha.
Which one of the following protected areas is well-known for the conservation of a sub-species of the Indian swamp deer (Barasingha) that thrives well on hard ground and is exclusively graminivorous?
- (a) Kanha National Park
- (b) Manas National Park
- (c) Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary
- (d) Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary
Answer(a) Kanha National Park
Same subject — Kanha National Park and its flagship wildlife (tiger reserve that is also the last home of the hard-ground Barasingha).
- practice — not a real PYQ
Kanha National Park is the last natural refuge of which endangered species, the state animal of Madhya Pradesh?
- (a)Hard-ground Barasingha (swamp deer)
- (b)One-horned rhinoceros
- (c)Asiatic lion
- (d)Snow leopard
Answer(a) Hard-ground Barasingha (swamp deer).
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Asiatic lion in India is found in the wild only in:
- (a)Kanha National Park
- (b)Gir forest, Gujarat
- (c)Kaziranga National Park
- (d)Sundarbans
Answer(b) Gir forest, Gujarat.