Wainganga River - in Fiction

In Fiction

Rudyard Kipling used the Wainganga (also spelled Wangunga in older editions) as a major landmark in the Mowgli stories of The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book (1894–1895). It is the primary source of water for all the people of the jungle, the location of the Peace Rock, the place where Shere Khan vows to place Mowgli's bones once he has killed him, and the final battleground in "Red Dog". In reality though the area around the Wainganga is not actually a rainforest. The Disney interpretation of Kipling's novel as an animated film showed Mowgli and the other various other jungle characters moving around in lush tropical rain forests but the area around the Wainganga is dry and dusty. The forests too are of a similar nature. The original novel refers to the area likewise. The forests of the Kanha National Park built around the Wainganga do have tiger, panther and bear populations though.

Coordinates: 19°36′N 79°48′E / 19.6°N 79.8°E / 19.6; 79.8