Protected Areas in News: Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve

Protected Areas in News: Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve

Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Environment and Biodiversity; Protected Areas

Why in news?

• Union government has proposed auctioning of Bander coal mine blocks near the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve.
• Over 1,200 hectare of rich forest land will have to be diverted if mining is allowed in the area. 
• There are objections and oppositions as the coal block is likely to impact a few hundred acres of the forest and will destroy the wildlife corridor of Tadoba and Andhari.

Do you know?

• Such auctions were scrapped after evaluation twice before, once in 1999 and then around 2011.
• Tiger Reserves in Maharashtra – Melghat, Tadoba-Andhari, Pench, Sahyadri, Nawegaon-Nagzira and Bor.
• According to wildlife experts, Bander blocks falls in the route used by tigers to disperse from Tadoba to Bor Tiger Reserve in Wardha district and Melghat Tiger Reserve in Amravati district. 
• Man-animal conflict is raging in Chandrapur district as the Tadoba landscape is teeming with tigers and other wildlife and clearing the area for mining will only increase the problem.

Key Prelims Pointers:

• Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is located in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state in India. 
• It is Maharashtra’s oldest and largest national park.
• Tadoba reserve is a predominantly southern tropical dry deciduous forest with dense woodlands comprising about eighty seven per cent of the protected area. Teak is the predominant tree species.