North News
New Delhi, November 18
India has officially notified the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh as the country’s 56th tiger reserve, Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav announced on social media. The reserve, spanning 2,829 square kilometers, includes critical habitats and diverse wildlife, including 753 species documented by the Zoological Survey of India.
The reserve is home to 230 bird species and 55 mammal species, including several threatened ones. Chhattisgarh now hosts four tiger reserves, further bolstering conservation efforts with support from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under Project Tiger.
The reserve, established in the Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, Korea, Surajpur, and Balrampur districts, includes a core area of 2,049 square kilometers, comprising the Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary. The buffer zone extends over 780 square kilometers, making it the third-largest tiger reserve in India after Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam and Manas Tiger Reserves.
This new reserve is part of a larger conservation landscape, connecting with the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and other reserves in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The NTCA gave final approval for its notification in October 2021, aiming to enhance the landscape approach to wildlife conservation.
