KANHA NATIONAL PARK TIMELINE |
| Year |
Description |
| 11th - 18th Century |
This forest area was part of Gondwana Kingdom. They had control over the majority of Central India region. |
| 18th Century till 1947 |
This region was under British India rule. |
| 1862 |
In this year Wasteland Rule was introduced in they department outlined the Forest Management policy by restricting the cutting of few tree species like Bija, Shisham, Sal, Saja etc. |
| 1876 |
In this year, legendary Dr. D. Brandis, the then Inspector General of Forests, visited the Banjar river valley forest area with intention to declare reserved forest area to protect forest and its wildlife. |
| 1879 |
This forest area was first declared as a reserve forest in year 1879. This was the beginning of its history. |
| 1935 |
In year 1935, British India government declared it as Banjar Valley Sanctuary. Kanha National Park was originally upgradation of Banjar valley sanctuary. With this declaration, here shooting of wild animals for game is prohibited with exceptions of Wild Boar and Birds. This restriction was applicable in declared sanctuary area which was not so vast thus a large forest area was open for any kind of shooting. |
| 1935 |
In this year Supkhar shooting block of Halon river valley forest area was declared as an absolute sanctuary. This resulted in population growth of all kind of wild animals, including carnivores. This resulted in more man-animal conflicts as many villages were located in nearby areas. This forest area is still one of the best forest part of tiger reserve. |
| 1941 |
The status of Banjar valley Sanctuary was reduced to that of a game sanctuary in view of the virtual impossibility of regeneration of Sal. |
| 1945 |
In this year, permission was issued to kill 250 Chitals from Shravan Tal meadow area of sanctuary. |
| 1947-51 |
In this period, Maharaj Kumar of Vijayanagaram shot 30 tigers in Kanha forest area. Shooting animal by gun, was matter of pride, adventure & bravery for them. These shooting was carried out in those areas which are not falling under wildlife sanctuary. Here it is important to note that during that period, sanctuary area was very small thus large area was available for animal shooting. |
| 1955 |
Notification for creation of Kanha National Park was made on 01/June/1955. At that time its area was 252 sq.km. |
| 1960 |
Kanha National Park have a history of phased relocation of villages outside the core zone of national park. Since 1960, as many as 27 villages have been relocated successfully. |
| 1964 |
With inclusion of new adjoining areas, Kanha national park area was increased to 318 sq.kms. |
| 1970 |
At the time of creation of Kanha National Park, Mukki valley was not the part of Kanha. Later on different phases, boundary of Kanha National Park was extended and Mukki valley was included in 1970. |
| 1970 |
Nationwide ban was imposed on killing of Tigers. Poaching was declared illegal activity in Kanha also. |
| 1970 |
Kanha national park area was increased to 446 sq.kms by this year. |
| 1973 |
Project tiger was launched with inclusion of first 9 national parks, including Kanha national park. Other national parks were Manas, Melghat, Sunderbans, Ranthambore, Palamu, Simlipal, Corbett, Bandipur. |
| 1974 |
Hallon Valley was merged in Kanha National Park area and thus its total area increased. |
| 1976 |
By this year, Kanha national park area was increased to 940 sq.kms. |
| 1983 |
Phen Wildlife Sanctuary was became part of Kanha National Park in 1983.It was a part of Motinala range, under the erstwhile South Mandla Territorial division (East Mandla Division). Realizing the wildlife potential of this area, it was declared wildlife Sanctuary in 1983 and was placed under unified control of Kanha Tiger Reserve. |
| 1995 |
Buffer zone of Kanha National Park was constituted in 1995. It is a separate division under the unified control of Kanha National Park Management. |
| 2000 |
Kanha national park was awarded for best tourism friendly national park of India. Award declaration came from Department of Tourism, Government of India. |
| 2008 |
Till year 2008, private vehicles were also allowed for jungle safari drives but since year 2008, only registered safari vehicles were allowed for safari drives. |
| 2009 |
Online safari booking system was introduced. It allowed tourists to do advance online booking of safari permits, from their location. In this year 150 vehicles were allowed in each safari round. |
| 2009 |
Death of Manglu Baiga in Kanha national park. He was popular figure of forest department, since project tiger and bravely participated in many animal rescue missions, excellent tracker. |
| 2010 |
Kanha National Park got total 03 safari zones i.e Kanha Zone, Mukki Zone and Sarhi Zone. Kisli zone was not created till now and this forest was part of Kanha zone only. |
| 2011 |
Kanha national park, remains close for afternoon safari, on every Wednesday. This decision was implemented from 01/Apr/2011. Before this day, it remains open in all days for both, morning & afternoon safaris. |
| 2012 |
Popular Elephant ride option, called "Tiger Show" was closed for tourists, as per directives for NTCA. |
| 2015 |
Kisli zone was created as 4th core zone. It was actually carved out from Kanha zone forest area. |
| 2017 |
Buffer zones safari booking was offered online. Till this time, tourists are mostly unaware of buffer zones option. |
| 2019 |
Due to dealy in monsoon, rainfall continues till Oct. first week, affecting jungle routes routine maintenance work. Thus opening of Kanha National Park was delayed till 16/Oct/2019. Booked safari permits of initial days (1-15 Oct 2019), were cancelled with full refund. |
| 2020 |
It was the period of covid-19 pandemic. Kanha national park was closed for tourism for some months. During this period, permit fee were refunded to tourists. |
| 2021 |
It was the year (Oct 2021) when Kanha national park resumed tourism activity, after covid-19 pandemic. Week-end tourism increased. Rules made to increase the permit fee of foreigner tourists by 100% means just double of domestic tourists. In addition to this, weekend (Sat-Sun) safari permit rates were increased for both domestic & foreigner tourists. |
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Here we have described history of Kanha tiger reserve in timeline format. As we all know that Kanha national park is counted among oldest tiger reserves of India so read the historical journey of Kanha forest area, various phases, turning points etc. This region was under control of Gondwana dynasty in which Gond rulers were ruling over the vast area of Central India. This forest area was part of their kingdom and here mainly tribal peoples were living like Gond, Baiga etc. Their villages are still existing in surrounding areas. During beginning of Project tiger in India, Kanha national park was among the first few national parks selected in the project for Tiger conservation in India. It is counted among most well managed and tourism friendly national parks of India. Before it was declared as national park, during British India period, two popular river valleys exists in Maikal-Satpura mountain ranges. They are known by the names of Halon River Valley and Banjar River Valley. These river valleys are very popular for its dense forests and wildlife nestles in these forested areas. It was British India time when they realize the importance of these river valley forested areas and started work for its conservation. These river valleys are the foundation of Kanha conservation history. As per below given Kanha timeline table, we can understand that first they were declared wildlife sanctuaries and then promoted to Kanha National Park and then Kanha Tiger Reserve came into existence. While reading about Kanha history, we should must read about this journey.
