NEW DELHI, October 21 — The Technical Committee of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, accorded final statutory approval on Tuesday to declare the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary as Rajasthan’s sixth Tiger Reserve.
Spanning approximately 2,760 square kilometres across the Aravalli hill tracts of Rajsamand, Udaipur, and Pali districts, the proposed reserve delineates an inviolate Core Critical Tiger Habitat of 800 sq km surrounded by an eco-development buffer zone. Kumbhalgarh joins Ranthambore, Sariska, Mukundra Hills, Ramgarh Vishdhari, and Dholpur-Karauli in Rajasthan’s expanding tiger conservation network.
Wildlife conservationists noted that establishing a protected tiger landscape in the southern Aravallis will relieve territorial saturation in Ranthambore through scientific tiger translocation, while restoring prey-base populations of sambhar, chinkara, four-horned antelope (Chousingha), and sloth bears.
The statutory procedure for notifying a Tiger Reserve under Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 upon NTCA recommendation, the 50-year legacy of Project Tiger (launched in 1973), and the historical significance of Kumbhalgarh Fort (built by Maharana Kumbha in the 15th century, featuring a 36-km-long perimeter wall) are high-frequency UPSC Prelims topics.