jump to navigation

Simplipal Tiger Reserve :India February 14, 2006

Simplipal is located in the centre of Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. The Simlipal National Park, one of the earliest to come under Project Tiger. It has spread over an area of 2,750 sq kms. It was declared as one of the nine tiger project reserves in the country in 1973. It was declared a sanctury in 1979.

Simplipal tiger reserve came under the umbrella of Project Tiger in 1973 and encompasses an area of 2,750 sq. kms. out of which the core area is 845.70 sq. kms. The total core is still pending final notification as a National Park. In 1972 there were said to be 17 tigers but the 1992 census estimates 95 tigers. Over 22 species of mammals, 220 species of birds and several varieties of reptiles share this forest with the tiger. Many hundreds of botanical species create a special bio-diversity for this natural system.

The Simplipal tiger reserve has been very strong and impressive in the field of research. During 1973-1982 the Founder-Dield Director the late Saroj Raj Chawdhury made studies on round the clock in-vivo studies of Sambar and Chital, time taken for food ingestion and elimination, rate of obliteration of pellet groups and the biology of the pet tigress Kheri. Since 1987 after the appointment of a research officer the research undertaken includes base-line data collection on meteorology, animal and plant inventory, monitoring research covering, improvement in the techniques for large-cat census, annual trends of tiger population and leopard populations, sighting trends of elephants at salt licks, population estimates of large herbivorous, tourism trends and development of management strategies, restoration research covering and mugger crocodile restocking including all aspects of captive management.

Sundarban Tiger Reserve consists of a cluster of islands and many of these islands have attained a height from the river inundation level that flushing of saline water with nutrients is almost absent. This has led to the deterioration in the regeneration status of some areas and any kind of exploitation of forest produce from such areas can create ‘forest blanks’ in the tiger reserve due to exploitation, and a lack of regeneration. It is therefore vital to review the felling in the buffer and multiple use zones after identifying the status of each island with regard to nutrients and seeds. With this the rate of siltation requires serious analysis to come up with new strategies to protect and conserve this unique tiger habitat. It is clear that much hard work has been done in a very unfriendly habitat in order that it is well protected.


Fatal error: Call to undefined function tla_ads() in /home/tworld/domains/india-ecotourism.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/regulus/comments.php on line 1