Pench National Park

"For Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh, see Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh".

The Pench National Park is located in northwestern Maharastra in India, about 70 km from the city of Nagpur. Spread over an area of 275 km², 10% area of the park is in Maharastra rest 90% of area is in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. The vegetation here is typical of the southern tropical deciduous forest. The best time to visit the park is between February and April. The common animals which can be seen are the gaur, sambhars, blue bulls, macaque, langur, wild boar, bears and wild dogs and the Park is well-known for its deers and leopards. A few tigers and civets can also be spotted sometimes.

The Park is open to visitors between 6 AM to 10:30AM in the morning and 3 PM to 6 PM in the evening. The park remains closed during the months of July, August and September. It can be accessed by road as well as railway. The nearest rail-head is at Ramtek and a bus can be taken for the next 35 km to the Park. Other important natural forests in Maharashtra like the Nagzira Sanctuary and the Navegaon National Park are also close to Pench.

Pench forest reserve, is the setting for Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

References

[http://www.wildlifetimes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=246 Wildlife Times: The Central Indian Tiger Pilgrimage - A trip report]
* [http://www.wcmc.org.uk/igcmc/s_sheets/maharash/0204v.html UN List of NPs]

The name of Pench National Park was changed to "Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park" in November 2002 Similarly the name of Pench Sanctuary has been changed to "Mowgli Pench Sanctuary".

Pench national park is situated to the south of satpura hills. It is named so after the name of the river Pench which flows through this area. This is the 19th project tiger reserve in India and was declared so in 1992.It has tropical moist deciduous forest. The prey concentration is highesty along the banks of the river Pench. The Pench national park has a count of 8 tigers (as in 1998) and 7 panthers (as in 1998).this national park is rich with chitals i.e. axis axis or more commonly spotted deer. There are 10 villages in the national park - 1 inside the park (Fulzari) and 9 on the periphery. A high vigilance level has kept the park away from poaching. Not that the park is free of poaching but it has a very good control over the poaching. Even unnecessary felling and illegal felling of trees is also controlled by timely patrolling. Group patrolling is also carried out here. The nearby villagers also help a lot in patrolling. This has paid dividends and the park is flourishing. This park is also a paradise ofor bird watchers as a lot of species, around 270 of them can be sighted here.The area was declared as Pench national park(Maharashtra) by the Government of Maharashtra vide notification number R&F.D./1395/212768/F-1 dated 22-11-75 with an area of 257.26 square kilo meter. Government of India declared the area as Pench tiger reserve vide their notification number III(I)-25/98-PT dated 11-2-99. This was reinforced with Government of Maharashtra declaration of Pench National Park as Pench tiger reserve vide Resolution number WLp-1095/CR-110/F-1 dated 23-2-99. tt

Film & Television

The Pench national park provided the location used by the BBC for the innovative wildlife series 'Tiger: Spy in the Jungle', a 3 part documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough which used concealed cameras, placed by elephants, in order to capture intimate tiger behaviour. The programme aired for the first time in April 2008.