Chhattisgarh’s new tiger reserve will prove to be a milestone in the direction of tiger conservation

Raipur. Tiger Reserve: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has given its approval to the Chhattisgarh government’s proposal to declare the combined areas of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary as a new tiger reserve on October 5, 2021.

This newly created Tiger Reserve is located in the northern part of the state bordering Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. This will also be the fourth tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh after Achanakmar, Udanti-Sitanadi and Indravati reserves.

Government’s proposal was considered by the 11th Technical Committee of NTCA on September 01. A month later, the proposal has been approved under Section 38V(1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh was identified as a part of the Surguja Jashpur Elephant Reserve. The Guru Ghasidas National Park located in the state was earlier a part of the Sanjay National Park in undivided Madhya Pradesh.

Both these areas were in line to be declared as Tiger Reserves since 2011. However, with this latest approval, the combined areas of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Sanctuary have been declared as Tiger Reserves.

Area

These two areas of the new Tiger Reserve, Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary are spread over an area of ​​1,44,000 hectares and 60,850 hectares respectively.

The national park is located in the Koriya district while Tamor Pingla is located in the Surajpur district in the north-western corner of Chhattisgarh. Guru Ghasidas National Park was the last known habitat of the Asiatic cheetah and was originally part of the Sanjay Dubri National Park. After the formation of Chhattisgarh state in the year 2001, it was carved out as a separate entity in the Surguja region of Chhattisgarh.

Wildlife experts and activists in Chhattisgarh believe that it is important to convert Guru Ghasidas National Park into a tiger reserve as it connects Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand and also has a corridor for movement of tigers between Palamu and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves. provides. On the other hand, Bhoramdev connects Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh with Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. According to experts, this decision to create a tiger reserve in Guru Ghasidas National Park has left Bhoramdev Efforts to notify it as a Tiger Reserve should also not be affected.