Chhattisgarh To Have India's Third Largest Tiger Reserve, Project Stuck Under Congress Approved By BJP Government

India will soon get its third-largest tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh as the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has cleared the proposal amid efforts to increase tiger population in the country.

The plan was earlier approved by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory authority under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The approval comes in the backdrop of declining population of tigers in Chhattisgarh, which are only 17 as per the latest tiger census report, down from 46 in 2014.

An area of 2,829.38 sq km is allocated for Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve by the state cabinet led by Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai.

"The formation of the new Tiger Reserve is expected to increase the number of tigers owing to the given region remaining more protected and shielded, ideally suited as a natural habitat for tigers," an officer said.

Currently, the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh is the largest in India, followed by the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam, which covers an area of 2,837.15 square kilometers.

The new Tiger Reserve is being established by merging the regions of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Sanctuary and will include the districts of Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, Koriya, Surajpur, and Balrampur.

The proposal for the tiger reserve was sent by the earlier BJP government when Raman Singh was the CM. Despite getting approval from NTCA, the project remained stuck under the Congress government.