Choose the correct statement with regards to Guru Ghasidas – Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve.

Correct — option (4), It is the third largest tiger reserve in the country.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced the reserve through PIB on 18 November 2024. Checking each option against that release:

Option (1) is wrong. The Government of Chhattisgarh notified the reserve, across the Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, Korea, Surajpur and Balrampur districts of Chhattisgarh.

Option (2) is wrong. November 2024 is right, but the reserve is the 56th tiger reserve of India, not the 54th.

Option (3) is wrong. The total area is 2,829.38 sq km, with a core or critical tiger habitat of 2,049.2 sq km and a buffer of 780.15 sq km; 1,829 sq km does not match.

Option (4) is correct. PIB states that this makes it the third largest tiger reserve in the country, after Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and Manas in Assam.

The idea to remember: 56th in order of notification, third by area, and located in Chhattisgarh.

Why the others are wrong

• (1)
  It is situated in Madhya Pradesh. — The reserve is in Chhattisgarh, notified by the state government on the advice of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

  Madhya Pradesh comes in as a neighbour. PIB notes that the reserve is contiguous with Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, forming a landscape complex of nearly 4,500 sq km, and connected to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to the west.

• (2)
  It is notified as 54th Tiger Reserve of India in November 2024. — The month is right but the number is not. PIB's release of 18 November 2024 calls it the 56th Tiger Reserve of the country.

  The serial number counts reserves in the order they were notified. It says nothing about size, where this reserve ranks third.

• (3)
  It is spread over 1829 sq. kms. — The figure is 1,000 sq km short. The reserve's total area is 2,829.38 sq km, which Minister Bhupender Yadav rounded to 2,829 sq km in his announcement.

  Neither part matches 1,829 either: the core or critical tiger habitat is 2,049.2 sq km and the buffer is 780.15 sq km.

A tiger reserve is notified by a state government on the recommendation of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), under Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Section 38V describes two zones. The core or critical tiger habitat, drawn from national parks and sanctuaries, is to be kept inviolate for tiger conservation. The buffer, the peripheral area around it, needs a lesser degree of habitat protection.

Here the core is formed by Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.

NTCA was set up under the 2006 amendment of the Act and runs Project Tiger, launched in 1973.

Key facts

• PIB announced Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla in Chhattisgarh as India's 56th tiger reserve on 18 November 2024.
• Its total area is 2,829.38 sq km: core or critical tiger habitat 2,049.2 sq km and buffer 780.15 sq km.
• Its core comprises Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.
• PIB ranked it India's third largest tiger reserve, after Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh) and Manas (Assam).
• The Zoological Survey of India has documented 753 species in the reserve, including 230 birds and 55 mammals.

Common traps

• Placing the reserve in Madhya Pradesh because it adjoins Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve there. It was notified by Chhattisgarh, in four of its districts.
• Reading the serial number as a size rank. It is the 56th reserve notified and the third largest by area.
• Accepting a figure with one digit changed: 1,829 for 2,829 sq km, or 54th for 56th, while the rest of the option stays true.

UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2023 here once that paper is published on this site.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve, notified in November 2024, lies in which state?

  • (a)Madhya Pradesh
  • (b)Chhattisgarh
  • (c)Jharkhand
  • (d)Odisha
  Answer(2) — Chhattisgarh notified it, across four of its districts. Option (1) holds Sanjay-Dubri, which it adjoins, and Bandhavgarh, to which it is connected; option (3) holds Palamau, to which it is connected in the east; option (4) does not figure in PIB's description of the reserve.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  According to the Ministry of Environment's release of November 2024, which of these tiger reserves is larger in total area than Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla?

  • (a)Manas
  • (b)Achanakmar
  • (c)Sanjay-Dubri
  • (d)Palamau
  Answer(1) — The release ranks Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla third, behind Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam and Manas. Options (2), (3) and (4) are therefore smaller by that ranking.