As part of its efforts to conserve tigers, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved the establishment of the first tiger reserve in Bundelkhand's Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary.
Here are the dimensions of the reserve:
How? All this comes after a meeting chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Cabinet on Tuesday, September 28. They also approved notifying Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
With this new tiger reserve, the total number of tiger reserves in UP will go up to four.
The other three tiger reserves are:
What else? The Cabinet has also decided to establish a Ranipur Tiger Conservation Foundation for the Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary along with sanctioning requisite posts.
The Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, which will now also be a Tiger Reserve, is covered by northern tropical dry deciduous forests and is home to the tiger, leopard, bear, spotted deer, sambhar, chinkara, reptiles and other mammals.
It will be a turning point for wildlife conservation in Bundelkhand along with utilising the eco-tourism potential of the area, creating immense employment opportunities for locals, according to the officials.
The bigger picture: The tiger reserves of India were set up in 1973 and are governed by Project Tiger, which is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Until now, India has a total of 53 protected areas that have been designated tiger reserves.
Check out the map for all the tiger reserves in India:
And here's the list of all 53 tiger reserves in the country (till May 2022):