Earlier, on February 27 and 28, and March 1, 2012, the government had declared four sanctuaries - New Nagzira, New Navegaon, New Bor (all in Vidarbha) and renotified 2 sq km area of Nannaj (Solapur) sanctuary, the best potential area for Great Indian Bustards (GIBs).
With Umred-Kharangla, 520 sq km area has been added to the existing 8,100 sq km area under the protected area (PA) network. At approximately 50 kms, this would be the second-closest sanctuary to Nagpur. The Mansinghdeo Sanctuary, which was notified in November last year, is less than 50 kms away. However, both have a long way to go before tourists can start visiting the sanctuaries.
Decisions in the past few months have shown that the state government is working towards giving a boost to Nagpur which was declared as Gateway to Tiger Country by former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh. However, it has continuously failed to acknowledge the nomenclature either in MTDC websites or in its tourism campaigns.
The total PAs in the state now go up to 40. The notification of new protected areas was necessitated after the government last year de-notified over 7,000 sq km of the Nanaj Sanctuary leading to depletion in total PA area. Read the full report here.
Source: Times News Network, Mumbai/Nagpur.
