Karmajhiri adjacent to Pench Tiger Reserve in MP declared as sanctuary

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has notified Karmajhiri, a popular safari zone adjacent to the Pench Tiger Reserve in Seoni district, as a new sanctuary, a senior Forest department official said on Wednesday.

He said this move will strengthen the management of tiger reserves and will also expand the forest space for animals.

“Seoni district's 1410.420-hectare forest area is included in the new Karmajhiri sanctuary. This will strengthen the management of tiger reserves as both carnivorous and herbivorous animals will get additional space to live,” said J S Chauhan, principal chief conservator of forest (Wildlife).

He said the wildlife conservation area in the state will also increase due to the new sanctuary.

Pench Tiger Reserve is one of the premier tiger reserves of India and the first one to straddle across two states - Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Madhya Pradesh has 24 sanctuaries.

Recently, the Centre denotified the Karera sanctuary as demanded by local people, said Chauhan.

As per the government notification, the Karera wildlife sanctuary spread on 202.21 sq. km has been denotified on the demand of the local population.

Karera wildlife sanctuary was constituted in 1981 for the conservation of Son Chiraiya, which was a rare species of bird.

Since it was a notified area, there was a ban on the sale-purchase of the land in this area. People had been demanding to denotify it as Son Chiraiya was never spotted in the area since 1992, the official said.

A gazette notification to denotify this area has been issued, the official added.