Panna Tiger Reserve gets UNESCO’s ‘Biosphere Reserve’ status, Environment Minister praises tiger conservation work

Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh, a popular tourist spot for wildlife lovers has been declared as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar sharing the news on Twitter congratulated the reserve for the status and praised its work on tiger conservation. Adding the tiger reserve to UNESCO’s list will help in exploring new measures towards the conservation of wildlife and sustainability.

The Panna Tiger Reserve has now been declared a @UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Congratulations to Panna Tiger Reserve for their amazing work on tiger conservation.@moefcc pic.twitter.com/gsos0ZxA1a

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) November 3, 2020

Every year UNESCO designates new Biosphere reserves and remove others to promote the conservation of biodiversity and resolve man-animal conflict at that site and enable sustainable use of natural resources.

Panna Tiger Reserve last year witnessed a remarkable turnaround in tiger population by increasing the number of big cats to 50 from zero estimated a decade ago, reported PTI. The Tiger Reintroduction Project started in 2009 by bringing five female and two male felines from Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks.

Covering an area of approx 542.67 sq km, the thick deciduous forest of the Panna National Reserve is the natural habitat of sloth, Indian wolf, Bear Pangolin, Leopard, Gharial, Indian fox and a lot more. While visiting the park, tourists also get to witness stone carvings that date back to the Neolithic era.

The Panna National Park got the status of Project Tiger Reserve 13 years after its formation in 1981. Report by the All India Tiger Estimation made Madhya Pradesh the state with the highest number of tigers. The state had a total of 526 big cats according to 2018 census. After Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand have the highest number of tigers.