SARISKA TIGER RESERVE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Env and Eco)

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court halted all mining activities around the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, declaring a one-kilometre radius around critical tiger habitats off-limits for mining.

Sariska Tiger Reserve

• About: A prominent wildlife sanctuary and national park located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, India. The park is a part of the Aravalli Range.
• Establishment: It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1955.

o Later, it was designated as a Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger in 1978.

o The wildlife sanctuary was declared a national park in 1982.

• Vegetation: Dry deciduous forests, thorn scrubs, and grasslands.
• Fauna: Apart from Bengal tigers, Sariska Tiger Reserve is known for its rich biodiversity, including Indian leopards, jungle cats, caracals, sambar deer, chital, nilgai, and a variety of bird species.
• Threat to reserve: Animal poaching, marble mining continue to threaten environment, habitat loss due to developmental activities, and Human-animal conflict.
• Other information:

o It is the first reserve in the world with successfully relocated tigers.

o Two tigers from Ranthambhore National Park were relocated to Sariska Tiger Reserve. 

o By 2020, the tiger population in the reserve has risen to 20.