GURU GHASIDAS-TAMOR
PINGLA TIGER RESERVE : ENVIRONMET
NEWS
: The Chhattisgarh Government decided to declare a
new tiger reserve covering areas of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor
Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.
WHAT’S IN THE NEWS ?
Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla tiger reserve
- This
will be the fourth tiger reserve in the state after Indravati
tiger reserve , Udanti-Sitanadi tiger reserve and Achanakmar
tiger reserve.
- Also
it will be the country’s third largest tiger reserve.
- Nagarjunasagar
Srisailam tiger reserve in Andhra
Pradesh is India’s largest tiger reserve, followed by Manas
tiger reserve in Assam.
- The
forests of Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla, located in the northern part of the
state, act as a corridor between the Bandhavgarh tiger reserves
(Madhya Pradesh) and Palamu tiger reserves (Jharkhand).
Tiger
Reserves in India:
•
Zoning:
A tiger reserve is divided into:
- Core
Area (Critical Tiger Habitat): Managed as a protected space.
- Buffer
Area: Borders the core and may have less protection.
•
Management:
Overseen by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Ministry
of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.
•
Current Status:
- 54
tiger reserves across India.
- India
is home to over 70% of the world’s tiger population.
- 15
wild cat species exist in India; 9 are threatened or endangered.
Conservation
Efforts:
•
Project Tiger: Launched in 1973 to protect
tigers, monitored by NTCA.
- Covers
54 reserves, about 2.21% of India’s land area.
- Provides
financial and technical support to tiger reserves.
•
Population Status:
- The
2018-19 assessment covered 381,400 km² across 20 states.
- Tigers
are growing at 6% annually; the 2018 estimate was 2,967 tigers.
- Global
tiger population has decreased by 95% in the last 150 years.
- IUCN
declared tigers extinct in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in 2022.
Legal
and Conservation Status:
•
Endangered: Listed as Endangered in the
IUCN Red List.
•
Protected: Schedule I animal under the
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
•
Killing: Only permissible if the tiger is
diseased, disabled beyond recovery, or poses a threat to human life. Cannot be
declared vermin.
Key
Initiatives and Awareness:
•
International Tiger Day: Celebrated on
29th July since 2010, to raise awareness about tiger conservation.
- India
met the goal of doubling its tiger population before the 2022 target set
by the St. Petersburg Declaration.
•
St. Petersburg Declaration:
- Announced
in 2010 at the first "Tiger Summit" in Russia.
- Aim:
Halt the decline and double the global tiger population by 2022.
- India,
along with 12 other tiger range countries, committed to this goal.
Ecosystem
Management:
•
Carrying Capacity: The maximum number of
tigers that an ecosystem can support.
- Limiting
Factors: Food availability, habitat size, and human-tiger conflict.
- Sundarbans:
Reached carrying capacity; high human-wildlife conflict due to pressure on
resources.
Global
Context:
•
13 Tiger Range Countries: Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal,
Russia, Thailand, Vietnam.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/chhattisgarh/chhattisgarh-govt-to-develop-fourth-tiger-reserve-in-state/article68497808.ece