History of Bandhavgarh National Park

Vyaghra Dev who was a progeny of Vaghelas belonging to state of Gujarat formed the basis of Rewa state that was formed in 1234. Vyaghra Dev married Raja Pirhawan’s daughter who later subjugated the areas of Chandalgarh and Kalpi. Bandhavgarh then known as Bandhogarh was taken in dowry by Karan Dev who was son of Vyaghra Dev and married daughter of Raja Ratanpur. It was in 1597 that the Mughals occupied the fortress of Bandhogarh though accidently. In 1593 after death of H.H Maharaja Virbhadra his son H.H Maharaja Vikramaditya who still was a minor occupied the throne. When for the lieu of safety he moved to Delhi his absence made the loyal nobles conquer the temporary governess of the state and later he barred the noble’s and officials of the Maharaja from the fort and appointed his own officials. Upon returning H.H Maharaja Vikramaditya had to establish a new state named Rewa.

The historic importance of this state was linked to 1st century. The Bandhavgarh fort comprises of total 39 caves and is surrounded by adjoining hills that are spread in an area of 5 km radius. The oldest cave of the fort is as old as 1st century. Many of the caves have Brahmi script in scripted on them while some of the caves have engraved statues of animals like pigs, horse, elephants and tigers. The biggest cave called as the Badi Gufa has total of nine smaller rooms with several pillars and the entrance of the cave is very broad and is as old as 10th century. The appearance of the cave is very primeval and does not comprise of intricate figures and the carvings in the cave belong to the Buddhist period. The existence of having this cave is still unknown.

There are no records available for why the fort of Bandhavgarh was constructed. The fort is believed to be as old as 2000 years and few of the ancient books have literature related to the existence of fort and the books that have the references are “Narad-Panch Ratra” and “Shiva Purana”. The other historical belief is that Lord Rama has visited the fort of Bandhavgarh and presented this fort to his brother Laxman (also referred as bandhu) which gave it the name Bandhavgarh. The fort has been ruled by various rulers like Mauryans ruled it during 3rd century BC while from 3rd to 5th centuries, it was ruled by Vakataka rulers and later in the 5th century by the Sengars. Kalachuris ruled fort during 10th century while in 13th century Baghels ruled over the fort till 1617 after which Maharaja Vikramaditya Singh shifted the capital to state of Rewa. The fort has remained inhabitant since 1935.

Before it was named as a national park, the park was ranked as Shikargah where the royals and their guests enjoyed the games.

In 1947, Rewa merged with the state of Madhya Pradesh but the Maharaja of Rewa still practiced the hunting in the area. It was in 1968 that the area was conserved and was named as a national park and hence after this, various measures were taken to preserve the habitat of the Bandhavgarh national park.

In 1972, the Bandhavgarh national park became part of Project Tiger after which the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 was formed. The Bandhavgarh national park was spread over an area of 105 sq. km. but this was not enough to preserve the species and hence, in 1982 three more zones named Khitauli, Kallawah and Magdhi in the Tala area so that the area of the national park was extended to a total of 448 sq. km. This was due to project Tiger extension activities that the extension of the area of Bandhavgarh was taken into consideration in year 1993. Total area of tiger reserve parks was extended to an area of 694 km2.