Kanha is simply India’s finest tiger reserve. This is a landscape of ancient sal forest and wide meadows - of streams and lakes and moist dawns where the morning mist hangs white over the grasslands and almost every sandy path holds the imprint of fresh tiger tracks.

With its vast core of protected woodlands and its broad buffer zones Kanha covers nearly 3000 square kilometres, big enough to form one of the last truly wild strongholds of the great tigers of Madhya Pradesh. To see a tiger here – a glimpse of a long striped back weaving through the grasses or a huge head, orange and white, staring from the bushes – is perhaps the most exciting wildlife experience anyone can have.

Tigers still thrive in Kanha because the unspoilt native forests, the varied pastures and water throughout the year support numerous other large animals for the tigers to eat. These include gaur, the largest wild cattle in the world. Male gaur can top 1000 kilos and have stunning purple-black coats and white socks.

Kanha is also one of the only places in the world you can see the beautiful dryland race of the swamp deer or Barrasingha. When they wade up to their necks to feed on submerged weed in the shallow pools, the great racks of antlers on the males seem almost to be floating on the water. Big, solitary Sambar deer, herds of spotted deer, wild boar and barking deer are also common so tigers are not the only predators here.

Leopards are plentiful and packs of wild dogs are frequently seen – like big red foxes, always busy, always inquisitive, deadly hunters. Everywhere you can find the signs of sloth bears – deep excavations in the tracks and termite mounds – and of porcupines – small trees with a ring of bark missing. There are jackals and jungle cats, mongooses and pythons and birds for all seasons.

In winter and spring the reverberant songs of racquet-tailed drongos seem to echo from every tree and the flutey knock-knock of barbets never ceases. So far the National Park has recorded 450 bird species and most people will see beautiful red minavets, turquoise rollers, pink hoopoes and bright green parakeets. Night falls fast in the forest. As you leave the park, the deer huddle among the shadows and in the whispering dark you can almost feel the world of the tiger closing around itself behind you.