Located in the central Indian highlands, Kanha National Park is authentic Kipling country and inspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Jungle Book. Until recently this was a land inhabited by the Gonds and Baigas, two tribal groups indigenous to the region, and it was not until 1955 that the reserve was established. The largest animal sanctuary in central India, Kanha is heavily forested – deciduous, tropical and bamboo – but also interspersed with meadows, grasslands, ravines and rivers all of which shelter and sustain a wide range of species. Mammals in Kanha include tiger, leopard, hyena, bison and jackal, wild boar, sambar, barasingha, wild dog, spotted deer and barking deer, nilgai, blackbuck, hyena, langur, macaque, honey badger and sloth bear. Over 200 bird species have also been recorded including the endangered lesser florican and green munia.