A 10-year-old ailing male tiger, in the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), has succumbed to a respiratory illness. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the organisation that manages the protection of India’s 3,000-odd tigers is puzzled on whether the tiger should be tested for the novel coronavirus disease.
About Pench Tiger Reserve:
- The Threat of COVID-19 has made its appearance in one of India’s most storied tiger reserves. The death of a 10-year-old ailing male tiger due to severe lung infection and respiratory problems, in the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR).
- Pench Tiger Reserve, Seoni (Madhya Pradesh) is one of the major Protected Areas of Satpura-Maikal ranges of the Central Highlands, which is among the most important tiger habitats of the world.
- Pench Tiger Reserve is among the sites notified as IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS of India.
- It has one of the highest herbivores densities in India.
- The Pench National Park and Pench Sanctuary were renamed as Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park & Pench Mowgli Sanctuary in 2002.
About Project Tiger:
- The Government of India has taken a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching the ‘Project Tiger’ in 1973 to promote conservation of the tiger.
- Project Tiger has been the largest species conservation initiative of its kind in the World
- 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 Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with an inclusive people-oriented agenda in the buffer.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority has been fulfilling its mandate within the ambit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for strengthening tiger conservation in the country by retaining an oversight through advisories/normative guidelines, based on an appraisal of tiger status, ongoing conservation initiatives and recommendations of specially constituted Committees
The NTCA addresses the ecological as well as administrative concerns for conserving tigers, by providing a statutory basis for protection of tiger reserves, apart from providing strengthened institutional mechanisms for the protection of ecologically sensitive areas and endangered species
Every 4 years the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) conducts a tiger census across India.
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