• Madhya Pradesh, which is home to the most number of tigers in the country, has got a new protected area for the big cats named ‘Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve’.
• It is the seventh tiger reserve in the state and 54^th in the country.
  • Other six tiger reserves in MP are– Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Satpura, Pench, Panna and Sanjay-Dubri.
• In compliance with the condition imposed by the Centre while giving approval to the Ken-Betwa River Link Project, the new tiger reserve, spread across Sagar, Damoh and Narsinghpur districts, has been notified.
• About 1,414 square kilometres in the tiger reserve has been included in the core area and 12 square kilometres in the buffer zone.
• The previously notified eco-sensitive zone of Nauradehi and Veerangana Durgavati sanctuaries and the surrounding forest areas have been included in the notified buffer area.
• Since no new revenue area has been included under this tiger reserve, no additional restrictions will be imposed on the local people living around it.

OTHER FACTS

• As per the report ‘Status of Tigers: Co-predators & Prey in India-2022’, released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India, MP (785) has the highest number of tigers in the country, followed by Karnataka (563) and Uttarakhand (560).
• P. retained the “tiger state” status in the 2022 census  with the number of big cats in the state rising to 785 from 526 in 2018.