GS Paper - III

The Chhattisgarh government notified the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla in the state as India’s 56th tiger reserve. The reserve is expected to help Chhattisgarh improve its tiger population, which has been dwindling in recent years. It also opens an avenue to the state’s ambition of reintroducing cheetahs at the reserve — the last cheetah was spotted here in the 1940s.

What do we know about the reserve?

• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla is the fourth tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh after Achanakmar, Indravati, and Udanti Sitanadi.
• The total area of the new tiger reserve is 2,829.387 sq km, making it the third largest tiger reserve in India.
• It is spread across four districts, Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur (MCB), Korea, Surajpur, and Balrampur in the northern tribal Sarguja region of Chhattisgarh.
• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla falls between two other important tiger reserves located in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Palamau, Jharkhand. It is adjacent to Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, also in MP.
• The reserve comprises a wide range of wildlife species (apart from tigers) such as elephants, sloth bears, vultures, peacocks, wolves, leopards, otters, chitals, jackals, nilgai, bison, hyenas, langurs, cobras etc.
• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla is also rich in flora — comprising sal, saja, dhavda, kusum etc — different types of vegetation.
• It consists of hills, plateaus, valleys, and a river system which create a diverse habitat for its rich wildlife.

What is Chhattisgarh’s current tiger population?

• Currently, there are 30 tigers, including three sub-adults and two cubs, in the state, according to Sudhir Kumar Agrawal, Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW), Chhattisgarh.
• There are five to six tigers at the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve as of now.
• The state’s tiger population fell from 46 in 2014 to 17 in 2022, the last official tiger status report released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), released in 2023, revealed.