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Recently, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved India’s newest Tiger Reserve situated in Chhattisgarh as a combined areas of the Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.
- This will be the 53rd Tiger Reserves of India and 4th Tiger Reserves in Chhattisgarh.
About India’s newest Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh
- The new Reserve is located in the northern part of the state, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
- This will be the fourth Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, after the Udanti-Sitanadi, Achanakmar, and Indravati Reserves.
About Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary & Guru Ghasidas National Park
- The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary was identified as part of the Sarguja Jashpur Elephant Reserve in 2011.
- Tamor Pingla is in Surajpur district in the northwestern corner of Chhattisgarh.
- Previous government of the state had decided to make Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary part of a bigger elephant corridor in the northern part of the state, and moved to obtain approval for the Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary in the centre of the state as a Tiger Reserve.
- The Guru Ghasidas National Park used to be part of the Sanjay National Park in undivided Madhya Pradesh.
- Guru Ghasidas National Park is in Koriya district.
- Guru Ghasidas National Park was the last known habitat of the Asiatic cheetah in the country.
- Originally part of the Sanjay Dubri National Park, Guru Ghasidas Park was created as a separate entity in Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja region after the formation of the state in 2001.
- Turning Guru Ghasidas into a Tiger Reserve is important because it connects Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh and provides a corridor for tigers to move between the Bandhavgarh and Palamau Tiger Reserves.
- Bhoramdeo, on the other hand, connects the Indravati Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh with the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and, experts say, the decision to create a Tiger Reserve at Guru Ghasidas National Park should not affect attempts to notify Bhoramdeo as a Tiger Reserve too.
- Guru Ghasidas National Park is in Koriya district.
- Both were identified as reserve forests, and had been in line to be notified as Tiger Reserve since 2011.
Tiger Reserves in India UPSC : Click here