Biodiversity & Environment
Sariska Tiger Reserve
- 04 May 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
The 13th session of the Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh webinar titled, ‘Destination- Sariska Tiger reserve’ was held recently.
- The objective of the Ministry of Tourism’s webinar series is to create awareness about and promote various tourism destinations of India – including the lesser known destinations and lesser known facets of popular destinations.
Key Points
- Sariska Tiger Reserve is located in Aravali hills and forms a part of the Alwar District of Rajasthan.
- The Reserve is immensely rich in flora and fauna, and is famous for Royal Bengal Tiger.
- The park has populations of leopards, Nilgai, Sambar, chital etc. It also shelters a large population of Indian peafowl, crested serpent eagles, sand grouse, golden backed woodpeckers, great Indian horned owls, tree pies, vultures,etc.
- Sariska was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1955 and was declared the tiger reserve later in 1978, making it a part of India's Project Tiger.
- The Sanctuary houses ruined temples, forts, pavilions and a palace.
- Kankarwadi fort is located in the center of the Reserve and it is said that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh at this fort in struggle for succession to the throne.
- The Reserve also houses a famous temple of lord Hanuman at Pandupole related to Pandavas.
Project Tiger
- Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, with an overarching supervisory/coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
- The NTCA was launched in 2005, following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force. It was given statutory status by the 2006 amendment of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
- India now has as many as 2,967 tigers in the wild, with more than half of them in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, according to the latest tiger estimation report for 2018.
- The population of tigers have increased by 33% since the last census in 2014 when the total estimate was 2,226.
- Sariska is the first tiger reserve to have successfully relocated Royal Bengal tigers in India and at present there are around 20 tigers in the reserve.
Dekho Apna Desh
- Dekho Apna Desh is one of the three components of the Paryatan Parv.The other two are Tourism for All and Tourism & Governance.
- It intends to encourage Indians to travel their own country.
