Context

• Recently, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has requested the Union government for considering an alternative alignment for the Akola-Khandwa rail line that passes through the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

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About MTR

• Melghatwas declared a tiger reserve and was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under the Project Tiger.
• It is located in northern part of Amravati Districtof Maharashtra State in India. The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundaries of the reserve.
• The Tapi river flows through the northern end of the Melghat Tiger Reserve.
• It consists of Gugamal National Park, Wan, Ambawarba and Narnala sanctuaries.
• The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak (Tectona grandis). The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga and Dolar. These all rivers are tributaries of the river Tapti.
• The inhabitants are mainly tribal, largely of the Korku tribe (80 per cent).
• Maharashtra provides legal protection to its tiger population through six dedicated tiger reserves under the precincts of the National Tiger Conservation Authority  under the initiative Project Tiger. 
• Other TR in Maharashtra- Tadoba, Pench, Sahyadri, Nawegaon-Nagzira & Bor.

National Tiger Conservation Authority

• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is astatutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• It was established in 2005following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force.
• It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.

Project Tiger

• Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
• There are 50 tiger reservesin India which are governed by Project Tiger which is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
• India is home to 80 percent of tigers in the world.
• India now has as many as 2,967 tigers in the wild, with more than half of them in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, according to the latest tiger estimation report for 2018.