Talking to media persons after chairing the 6th MWB meeting here on Thursday, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan announced that the state government would develop a “tiger corridor" on a sprawling 189.29 sq km area at Umred situated between Tadoba and Navegaon sanctuaries in eastern Maharashtra.
The proposed corridor will facilitate the tigers from Tadoba to move to Kanha reserve in Madhya Pradesh. “Tigers from Tadoba have genetic similarities with those in Kanha and the corridor will enable natural cross breeding. Umred is situated between Tadoba and Navegaon en route to Kanha," Chavan said.
In addition, the MWB approved setting up four new sanctuaries: new Bor sanctuary (60.69 sq km) at Wardha, New Nagzira (151.335 sq km) and New Navegaon (122.75 sq km) at Gondia and New Maldhok (2 sq km) at Solapur.
Currently, Maharashtra has six national parks and 40 wildlife sanctuaries. The tiger population in the state has increased markedly from 103 in 2006 census to 169 in 2010 census. Read the full report here.
Source: The Pioneer, PNS, Mumbai.
