Bor Wildlife sanctuary a Tiger Reserve

New Delhi: Bor Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra will become the country's 47th Tiger Reserve with Environment Ministry notifying it as a tiger reserve with an aim to strengthen the conservation efforts of the national animal.

Minister of State (Independent Charge), Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the Chairperson of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Prakash Javadekar has approved the recommendation on a proposal from Maharashtra for notifying the Bor Sanctuary, New Bor Sanctuary and the New Bor Extended Wildlife Sanctuary as a core/critical tiger habitat of a tiger reserve.

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, amidst the Satpura-Maikal landscape, forming catchment of the river Bor. The sanctuary is also an important corridor between Tadoba-Andhari and Pench Tiger Reserves of the State.

Bor is the 47th tiger reserve in the country and the 6th tiger reserve of Maharashtra. With Project Tiger coverage, the reserve would receive funding and technical support which would strengthen tiger conservation, besides ecodevelopment to benefit fringe people.

Javadekar also approved the recommendations of the technical committee of the authority 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.