The lowland forest is a mixture of sal (shorea robusta) and other mixed forest trees, interspersed with meadows. The highland forests are tropical moist dry deciduous type and of a completely different nature with bamboo on slopes (dendrocalamus strictus). A very good looking Indian ghost tree (kullu) can also be seen in the dense.

There is a large tiger population in the park (131 tigers as on June 2006). The park also has a significant population of leopards, the sloth bear and Indian wild dog (Cuon alpinus dukhunensis). The population of leopards is estimated to 80, the wild dogs to 396 and the sloth bears to 111 individuals for the year 2000.[1] Rare Indian wolf (Canis (lupus) indica) can be found in the far east part of the park.

The most abundant prey species for the large predators is the spotted deer or chital, which number is estimated to about 20000 in the park. The second largest population of deer is that of Sambar (Cervus Unicolor) which constitutes an important prey base of the tiger. Other commonly observed mammals include the common grey langur (6668 in 2000), wild boar (8534 in 2000), gaur (more than thousand in 2000), sambar (3621 in 2000)[1] and barasingha or swamp deer (this is the hardground swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli branderi), found only in Kanha, barely 1200 survive in the wild). There were only 60 Barasingha left on this planet when measures were taken to prevent extinction.

Other larger mammal species of the park are rhesus macaque, golden jackal, Bengal fox, smooth-coated otter, honey badger, small Indian civet, Indian gray mongoose, ruddy mongoose, striped hyena, jungle cat, leopard cat, Indian spotted chevrotain, Indian pangolin, Indian porcupine and Indian hare. The Indian jungle fowl is common.