Madhya Pradesh's Panna National Park has been announced as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The park is very popular amongst wildlife lovers. Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar shared this wonderful news on Twitter and congratulated the reserve for being honoured with the status. Javadekar also praised the reserve for the work it has done in conserving the tigers.
Getting the tiger reserve listed in UNESCO would help in exploring new measures towards the conservation of wildlife and sustainability.
UNESCO every year selects new Biosphere reserves and removes others that are already existing in the list. This works in promoting and encouraging the conservation of biodiversity and resolves man-animal dispute at that territory along with facilitating sustainable use of natural resources.
Panna Tiger Reserve had observed a great reversal in tiger population after 50 big cats were added to it last year. The numbers are also remarkable because it had zero estimated cats a decade ago.
The Tiger Reintroduction Project was initiated in 2009 after it got five female and two male felines from Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks.
Panna National Reserve is a thick deciduous forest scattered around an area of approx 542.67 square kilometres, the natural habitat is home to various species of animals like sloths, Indian wolf, Bear Pangolin, Leopard, Gharial, Indian fox and a lot more.
Tourists visiting the national park also get to catch a glimpse of the beautiful stone carvings that date back to the Neolithic era.
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Project Tiger Reserve status was conferred to Panna National Reserve after 13 years since it's formation in 1981. Report by the All India Tiger Estimation made Madhya Pradesh the state having a high amount of tigers. As per 2018, census Madhya Pradesh, had a total of 526 big cats.
Karnataka and Uttarakhand are other states that have the highest number of tigers in the country.