In news: Recently, as many as two tigers were spotted within a Month (November 2023) in Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).
- Interestingly, this is the third tiger spotted in PTR this year ie. 2023 itself; it was first spotted directly by the officials in March 2023 after a period of three long years.
- Notably, according to the report on the Status of Tigers in India, released by the Prime Minister in 2019, there were no tigers in PTR.
The Palamu Tiger Reserve
- The Palamu Tiger Reserve, which is spread over an area of about 1,230 sq km, was made a tiger reserve in 1973 and had a good number of the animal, which came down to three in the 2014 census and zero in the latest report.
- The Palamau Tiger Reserve was constituted in the year 1974 under PROJECT TIGER. It is one of the first 9 tiger reserves created in the country at inception of ‘Project Tiger’. Palamau Tiger Reserve has the distinction of being the first sanctuary in the world in which a tiger census was carried out as a pugmark count, as early as 1932 under the supervision of J.W. Nicholson, the then DFO, Palamau.
- Palamau Tiger Reserve was established when India was introducing the famous Project Tiger in the year 1973 to save the endangered asset of our country.
- The Palamau Tiger Reserve is located in the western side of Latehar district on the Chota Nagpur plateau in Jharkhand. The forest is surrounded by the Netarhat Forest in the South, Auranga River in the North, Latehar Forest Division on the East and Garhwa Forest Division and Surguja District of Chhattisgarh on the West. It was believed that with the introduction of this reserve the endangered species of tigers along with other wild counts would be preserved and cared for under the Wildlife Protection Act.
- Years ago before the establishment of Palamau Tiger Reserve, the management of these forests was highly commercial. There were some cattle camps and the area was open for grazing. The entire forest area used to be ravaged by fires every year with the unchecked activities of poaching. But today, the present area of the Reserve got duly constituted either as Protected Forest or Reserved Forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 way back in 1947.
- The Palamau Tiger Reserve is very important for its biodiversity. The project area is constituted mainly of Sal forests, mixed deciduous forests and bamboo groves. The reserve zone is the watershed area for 3 important rivers Koel, Burha and Auranga.