RAIPUR, October 1 — The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) along with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on Thursday formally approved the notification establishing the contiguous expanse of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh as India's 56th Tiger Reserve.
Encompassing an expansive territory of approximately 2,829 square kilometres across Koriya, Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, and Surajpur districts, the newly declared reserve ranks as the third-largest tiger reserve in India by geographical area, establishing a critical contiguous corridor linking Madhya Pradesh's Bandhavgarh and Sanjay Dubri reserves with Jharkhand's Palamau Tiger Reserve.
Wildlife ecologists and forest conservators emphasized that protecting this vast central Indian landscape provides essential genetic connectivity for Panthera tigris populations, preserves vital catchment watersheds feeding the Son and Hasdeo river networks, and strengthens community-based eco-development under the Wildlife Protection framework.
The statutory architecture of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 as amended in 2006), Project Tiger (launched in 1973), the four-yearly national tiger census methodology (M-STrIPES application), and Protected Area zoning (core and buffer) are standard high-yield areas in UPSC Civil Services (GS-III: Environment and Biodiversity) and State Forest Service examinations.