Environment Quiz: Protected areas including parks |15 Apr, 2021

Notably Maharashtra’s oldest and largest National Park, the “Tadoba National Park”, also known as the “Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve” is one of India’s project tiger reserves existing in India.

• It lies in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state and is approximately 150 km from Nagpur city.
• The total area of the tiger reserve is 1,727 Sq.km, which includes the Tadoba National Park, created in the year 1955.

• The Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary was formed in the year 1986 and was amalgamated with the park in 1995 to establish the present Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve.
• The word ‘Tadoba’ is derived from the name of God “Tadoba” or “Taru,” which is praised by local tribal people of this region and “Andhari” is derived from the name of Andhari river that flows in this area.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/heres-how-national-parks-are-doing-after-the-pandemic-induced-hiatus/article33511629.ece

Ranthambore National Park is one of the biggest and most renowned national parks in Northern India.

• The Park is located in the Sawai Madhopur district of southeastern Rajasthan, which is about 130 km from Jaipur.
• Once considered as one of the famous and former hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jaipur, today the Ranthambore National Park terrain is a major wildlife tourist attraction that has drawn the attention of many wildlife photographers and lovers.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/heres-how-national-parks-are-doing-after-the-pandemic-induced-hiatus/article33511629.ece

Panna Tiger Reserve had lost all its tigers to poaching by 2009 and it is only in the last decade through a careful process of relocation from other tiger reserves and natural breeding that the tiger population has climbed back to about 50.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/tracking-tigers-at-panna-national-park-madhya-pradesh/article33793138.ece

Many wildlife habitats in the Northeast are understaffed, without trained manpower and proper infrastructure, the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) report of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has said.

• The MEE has marked Meghalaya for fairly good management practices while the evaluated wildlife sanctuaries in Assam were found to have “extremely poor” infrastructure, thus adversely affecting their management.
• The best managed among the 16 evaluated protected areas in the region was found to be Meghalaya’s Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary because of the continuity of a management plan since 2001 “irrespective of who’s posted”.

• The report largely attributed the significant reduction in biotic interference in the sanctuary to community support.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/many-northeast-wildlife-habitats-understaffed-says-report/article33708546.ece

The only floating national park of its kind in the world, Keibul Lamjao National Park is a singular wetland ecosystem located on the Loktak Lake.

Home to brow-antlered deer or sangai, the state animal of Manipur.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/many-northeast-wildlife-habitats-understaffed-says-report/article33708546.ece

Papikonda National Park (PNP), with a dominant area covered with moist deciduous forest, has become home for the leopard cat (Prinailurus bengalensis) in the Eastern Ghats.

• The 1,012.86 sq km national park is on both sides of river Godavari in the northern Eastern Ghats.
• Of the 13 protected forests in Andhra Pradesh, the leopard cat has been sighted only in the PNP.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/papikonda-national-park-becomes-home-for-leopard-cats/article26981103.ece

In Western the Ghats, over 100 leopard cats have been sighted in the four reserves — Bhadra Tiger Reserve, BRT Tiger Reserve, Nagarhole and Bandipur reserves.

Sunabeda Tiger Reserve is located in Odisha.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/papikonda-national-park-becomes-home-for-leopard-cats/article26981103.ece

Nandankanan Zoological Park is a premier large zoo of India.

• Unlike other zoos in the country, Nandankanan is built right inside the forest and set in a completely natural environment.
• The animals are housed in enclosures with greenery with a feel of real forest and live with no fear or apprehension of becoming the hunter’s prey.
• Nandankanan is 15 kms from Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar.

• The Bhubaneswar railway station is at a distance of 18 kms and the Biju Patnaik International Airport is at a distance of 20 kms.

Source: The Hindu

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 provides for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants; and for matters connected there with or ancillary or incidental thereto.

• It extends to the whole of India.
• It has six schedules which give varying degrees of protection.
• The cheetah falls in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Source: The Hindu

Crocodiles are ambush hunters and apex predator of river systems of the India.

• There are three crocodilians’ species found in India, Mugger crocodile, the Gharial and the Saltwater Crocodile.
• Mugger crocodile and the gharial are found throughout the Indian subcontinent and they are ambush hunters, mostly prey on fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.

• Saltwater Crocodiles are the largest species of crocodilians family and largest of all living reptiles in the world.
• The apex predator found in saline and brackish mangrove swamp forest of Bhitarkanika and Sunderbans.
• Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district of Odisha is a separates swamp region and mangroves forest.
• The Park is home to largest Saltwater Crocodiles in India and many other species of reptiles such as White Crocodile, Indian Python and King Cobra.

Source: The Hindu