Panna Tiger Reserve gets UNESCOs Biosphere Reserve Status

Madhya Pradesh&rsquos Panna National Park has been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate change, Prakash Javadekar shared this news on Twitter congratulating the reserve for the status and praised its work on tiger conservation. This addition to the UNESCO list will help in exploring new measures towards the conservation of wildlife.

Every year UNESCO appoints new biosphere reserves and removes others to promote the conservation of biodiversity, resolve the man-animal conflict at that site and allow sustainable use of natural resources.

The Panna Tiger Reserve witnessed a remarkable growth in tiger population last year. The number of tigers increased to 50, from zero which was just a decade ago. The Tiger Reintroduction Project started in 2009 with five female and two male tigers from Bhandhavgarh and Kanha national parks.

The reserve covers an area of approximately 542.67 sq km. The thick deciduous forest of this reserve is a natural habitat for sloths, Indian wolf, Bear pangolins, leopards, gharial, Indian fox and a lot more. It's also home to stone carvings that date back to the Neolithic era.

Panna got the status of a Project Tiger Reserve 13 years after its formation in 1981. The All India Tiger Estimation reported that Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers. The state has a total of 526 tigers according to the 2018 census.