Demand For Tiger Reserve Status to Nandhaur Sanctuary

With the number of tigers steadily on the rise at the Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarakhand, the authorities have sought the ‘Tiger Reserve Status’ for it.
The number of tigers at the sanctuary when it came into being in 2012 was 9 which rose to 27 in 2018. The number is expected to cross 32 this year.
The sanctuary’s elevation as a tiger reserve will help in receiving funds from the Centre and the expertise of national-level zoological scientists to conserve the growing population of tigers at the sanctuary.
The sanctuary is situated close to the Nandhaur river in the Kumaon region and spreads over an area of 269.5 sq km.
The Government of India took a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching the ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973.
- The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy. The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, with an overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.