Team Blitz India
MUMBAI: Bor Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Wardha district of Maharashtra, has been given the status of a tiger reserve, making it the smallest such reserve in the country.
The 138 sq km reserve is the sixth tiger reserve in Maharashtra and 47th in the country. The sanctuary at present is estimated to have four tigers. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, in declaring this reserve, has bent its own guidelines.
According to the guidelines, a minimum of 800-1,000 sq km of area is required to provide the required ecological supports for tiger survival. Interestingly, the original recommendation of the Maharashtra Forest Department was to recognise the 61.10 sq km Bor and 60.69 km New Bor sanctuaries as extensions of the Pench Tiger Reserve located in the neighbouring Nagpur district.
Giving tiger reserve status to the small sanctuary will help in conservation since it will now receive funds from the Centre.
Stronger conservation measures are necessary because the Bor sanctuary falls at a crucial junction between the Pench and Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserves and the corridor between the two reserves has become highly fragmented.
A portion of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve’s (TATR) buffer zone, which had been given to the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) on lease, has finally been restored to the reserve.
