The Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) has approved a proposal to notify the Bor Wildlife Sanctuary in Wardha district of eastern Maharashtra as a Tiger Reserve.
The Bor Wildlife Sanctuary becomes sixth tiger reserve in Maharashtra after Tadoba, Melghat, Pench, Nagzira and Sahyadri, and the 47th tiger reserve in the country.
Acting on a recommendation made by the Maharashtra Government, Union Minister for Environment Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar - who is also the Chairman of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) --- declared the 13,812 hactare area of Bor Sanctuary, New Bor Sanctuary and New Bor Extended Wildlife Sanctuary as a core / critical tiger habitat.
The Bor Wildlife Sanctuary, notified by the State in 1970, is rich in biodiversity with a wide variety of flora and fauna, including tiger, co-predators, prey animals and birds. The habitat is scenic and is on the boundary of Nagpur and Wardha districts, amid the Satpura-Maikal landscape, forming catchment of the river Bor.The Bor sanctuary is also an important corridor between Tadoba-Andhari and Pench Tiger Reserves of the State.
With Project Tiger coverage, the reserve would receive funding and technical support which would strengthen tiger conservation, besides eco development to benefit fringe people.
The MoEF’s move to notify Bor Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve less than a year after the Maharashtra Government accorded a combined tiger reserve status to Nawegaon National Park, Naweegaon Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, New Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary and newly created Koka Wildlife Sanctuary.
Notified as the Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR), the fifth tiger reserve came into being in December last year.
Meanwhile, MoEF has also approved the NTCA’s Technical Committee recommendations for a project from the Wildlife Institute of India to establish ecological baselines for long-term monitoring of tigers, co-predators and prey species in the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary and adjoining landscapes in Arunachal Pradesh, besides supporting the extension of an ongoing research project on intensive monitoring and study of tiger dispersal in the Kanha Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh.