The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Tuesday greenlit Chhattisgarh’s proposal to declare the combined regions of the Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary and the Guru Ghasidas National Park as a Tiger Reserve.
The new Reserve, positioned in the state’s north, borders Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. This will be Chhattisgarh’s fourth Tiger Reserve immediately after the Udanti-Sitanadi, Achanakmar, and Indravati Reserves.
The NTCA’s 11th Technical Committee authorized the proposal beneath Section 38V(1) of The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
A decade’s efforts
The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary was added to the Sarguja Jashpur Elephant Reserve in 2011. In undivided Madhya Pradesh, the Guru Ghasidas National Park was a component of the Sanjay National Park. Both had been reserve forests and, considering the fact that 2011, had been in line to be notified as Tiger Reserves.
Medium reserve
The new Reserve’s constituent units —Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary and Guru Ghasidas National Park — cover 608.5 sq km and 1,440 sq km, respectively.
Tamor Pingla is positioned in northwestern Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district, whilst Guru Ghasidas National Park is situated in Koriya district.
Significance
Guru Ghasidas National Park is substantial as the Asiatic cheetah’s last-recognized habitat in India. Part of Sanjay Dubri National Park initially, Guru Ghasidas Park was set up as a separate entity in Sarguja area of Chhattisgarh immediately after the state came into becoming in 2001.
The state’s BJP government had decided to incorporate the Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary as component of northern Chhattisgarh’s larger elephant corridor and even moved to get approval to have the Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary at the centre as a Tiger Reserve. However, regional resistance in Bhoramdeo forced the government to place the program on the backburner in 2018.
The Congress government that came into energy then threw its weight behind receiving NTCA approval for the Guru Ghasidas National Park.
Wildlife activists and authorities think that converting Guru Ghasidas into a Tiger Reserve is an vital step as it connects Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand and offers the tigers with a corridor to move among the Palamau and Bandhavgarh reserves.
On the other hand, Bhoramdeo connects Chhattisgarh’s Indravati Tiger Reserve with Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve and, according to authorities, the conversion of Guru Ghasidas National Park into a Tiger Reserve should really not have an effect on the government’s attempts to turn Bhoramdeo into a Tiger Reserve as effectively.