Indravati Tiger Reserve Opens To Tourists After 4 Decades
Chhattisgarh opens a nine-km safari route in the reserve's buffer zone, marking a major step towards promoting eco-tourism and wildlife tourism.
The Indravati Tiger Reserve (ITR), once considered the impregnable Maoist fort, in Bijapur district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh was on Sunday opened for the tourists after a gap of around four decades.
In the first phase, a 33-km safari route has been identified in the buffer area of the ITR, of which a nine-km stretch from Ullur village to Dandaparti has been opened for the tourists, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) (wildlife) O P Yadav said.
“Opening the ITR to tourists is an important step towards promoting eco-tourism and showcasing the rich biodiversity of the region”, Mr. Yadav said.
The historic occasion coincided with the statehood day of Chhattisgarh.
The ITR, the fourth largest tiger reserve in the country in terms of area, is home to tigers, leopards, wild buffaloes, gaur, Chital and several other wildlife species.
The ITR was among the two tiger reserves in Chhattisgarh where All India Tiger Estimation could not be conducted on earlier censuses due to Maoist menace.
The other tiger reserve, that had to skip the big cat enumeration exercise for the last several censuses, was Udanti-Sitanadi.
However, the ongoing All India Tiger Estimation has been completed in the Udanti-Sitanadi tiger reserve recently due to elimination of the Maoist threat.
The ITR, spanning over 2,800 sq km, had to shun the last four big cat estimation exercises owing to Leftwing Extremism.
Major parts of the ITR used to remain inaccessible for officials to conduct All India Tiger Estimation on earlier occasions due to Naxal threats.
Maoists used to intimidate the forest officials to prevent them from installing cameras in the ITR for the tiger estimation, sources said.
The fall of the Maoist fort of Bastar in March has paved the way for resumption of tiger census in the ITR this time after a gap of almost two decades, sources said.
Bastar was declared free of armed Naxal activities on March 31.
“All India Tiger Estimation is currently underway in the ITR”, the ITR director, Sumedh Surwade, told this newspaper on Sunday.
A presentation made by the forest department before the state forest minister Kedar Kashyap recently estimated the number of tigers in the ITR at six.
The tiger population in Achanakmar, Guru- Ghasidas Tamor Pingla, Bhoramdev and Udanti-Sitanadi tiger reserves in the state has been estimated at 18, seven, three and one respectively, as per the presentation made before the minister.
