Pench

Pench takes its name from the river that runs north to south through the reserve, splitting it roughly in half and pooling behind the Totladoh dam into a wide reservoir that draws waterbirds in winter. The Madhya Pradesh side, in Seoni and Chhindwara districts, became a national park in 1983 and a tiger reserve in 1992; Maharashtra's half is managed from Nagpur. Unlike the shaded sal forests of Kanha, Pench is teak, saja and dhawa, a dry deciduous forest that drops its leaves in March and opens the whole landscape to the eye.

Herds of chital number in the hundreds, gaur amble across the Alikatta meadow, and the park has a strong population of wild dogs. Its most famous resident was the tigress Collarwali, who bore 29 cubs before her death in January 2022 and whose descendants patrol the Turia zone. Kipling never saw Pench but drew on Robert Sterndale's Seonee for The Jungle Book, so guides will point out the Wainganga, Kipling's river, and the ravines of Seoni.

The main gates are Turia, Karmajhiri and Jamtara; Turia has the lodges. A day runs from a frosty six o'clock drive along the Sitaghat riverbanks to a lazy lunch, then an afternoon drive when langurs sound the alarm at a leopard in a dhawa tree. Buffer-zone night drives run from Turia and Rukhad, where jungle cats and civets appear in the headlights.