The park is set in extremely rugged terrain with many hills. The marshes which used to be perennial now support a vast grassland savanna. There are also interesting cave shrines scattered around the park, with Brahmi inscriptions dating from the first century BC. You can visit the remains of a fort believed to be 2000 years old where you may spot crag martins and brown rock thrush. Bandhavgarh is not very far from Rewa, famous as the original home of the white tiger, now only found in zoos. Before becoming a national park in 1968, it was the game reserve of the Maharajas of Rewa. The conservation programme helps to protect wildlife from disease, fire, grazing and poaching.

Wildlife
The park has a wide variety of game and has a longer 'season' than Kanha. Its main wild beasts are tiger, leopard, sloth bear, gaur, sambar, chital, muntjac, nilgai, chinkara and wild pigs. There are over 60 tigers, but they remain very elusive. The flowering and fruit trees attract woodland birds, which include green pigeon, jedon's leaf bird, crested serpent eagle and variable hawk eagle.