Kanha. Land of the Tiger | Part 3

There are no wild Indian elephants in Kanha, but they can be seen at different points feeding at their ease.

They are domestic animals, in fact, used by the mahouts or carnacas, the elephant drivers, to cross the forest and carry small groups of tourists.

The mahouts and their elephants are a single entity. In their camps, they care for their animals, to which they owe their livelihood and, in short, their way of life. Caring for the elephants is a hard job and the mahouts devote a large part of the day to it. The animals feed naturally in the Park’s grasslands and forests, but an elephant also needs extraordinary care.

Visitors to Kanha can cross the Park in the keepers’ jeeps, driving on the dirt tracks which cover a small circuit. But if you want to experience Kanha’s nature more closely, there is no better way than mounting an elephant and penetrating more deeply than the tracks traced by tourism.
Only on the back of an elephant can you delve into the dense Kanha jungle.

The animals do not seem to be frightened by the passing of the pachyderm in the same way as with a motor vehicle, which is extremely important in these depths, where they all seem alert and flee in face of the slightest threat.

There is good reason for the animals’ mistrust, because in the depths of these jungles lives the most powerful predator of all: Sher, the Tiger, Lord of the Jungle.