The Park consists of core area of 940 sq. km. which is surrounded by a buffer zone of 1005 sq. km.

Little is known about Kanha before the middle of the 19th century. Presumably the slash-and-burn (or Bewar) cultivation methods of the Baiga and Gond indigenous peoples stretched back for centuries.

The first extensive natural history notes about the area come from 
Captain J. Forsyth. (The highlands of Central India) year 1860.