Madhya Pradesh has remained a state with a vast area of forest and tree cover across the country. The state has a diverse ecosystem delightful with the presence of wildlife fauna and flora; the ethos of India has always been to embrace nature as a family. Madhya Pradesh leads the country with a total forest and tree cover of 85,724 sq km, of which 77,073 sq km is forest cover. It has 30.72 % of the total geographical area of the state under forest, and it forms about 12.30 % of the country’s total forest area.
The state has as many as 24 wildlife sanctuaries, 11 national parks, and eight tiger reserves, including Kanha, Pench, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Satpura, and Sanjay Dubri Tiger reserves. Tiger reserves have a crucial role where many tiger’ preservation initiatives occur. The Madhya Pradesh government declared Ratapani Sanctuary near Bhopal as the state’s eighth tiger reserve in the recent past; Madhav Wildlife Sanctuary near Shivpuri is the ninth tiger reserve.
Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary is about 1,272 square kilometers now divided into a critical zone of 763 square kilometers that allows free tiger movements and a restricted human access zone of 507 square kilometers. Thus, its accessibility to Bhopal makes it a ‘Tiger Capital’ that will spur eco-tourism and job opportunities for the residents.
Madhya Pradesh passed India’s initial Wildlife Protection Act in 1973. In fact, Satpura Tiger Reserve has been proposed as a World Heritage Site, and Mukundpur is home to the globally acclaimed Maharaja Martand Singh White Tiger Safari. Unbelievable, but it is a fact that the “Collarwali Tigress” of Pench Tiger Reserve, which is nicknamed “Super Mom,” has spontaneoused 29 cubs in eight litters.
Through these measures, Madhya Pradesh of course, strengthens its position as a model of effective actions to preserve unique flora and fauna and to fulfill the mission of people’s rational interaction and cooperation with wildlife in the future.
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