A buffer of 2,310.88 sq km at Manas and a core of 79.28 sq km at Orang: how Assam's tiger reserves are built

Background

The National Tiger Conservation Authority's list of tiger reserves records four reserves in Assam: Manas, Kaziranga, Nameri and Orang. Manas carries a core area of 526.22 sq km and a buffer of 2,310.88 sq km, a total of 2,837.10 sq km, the largest of the four and a reserve in which the buffer is more than four times the core. Kaziranga is recorded with a core of 625.58 sq km and a buffer of 548.00 sq km, a total of 1,173.58 sq km, one of the two Assam reserves whose core is larger than its buffer. Nameri, the other, has a core of 320 sq km and a buffer of 144.00 sq km, a total of 464.00 sq km, and is the most core-dominated of the four. Orang has the smallest core of the four at 79.28 sq km, with a buffer of 413.18 sq km and a total of 492.46 sq km. The tiger reserve notification years the list gives are 2008 for Manas, 2007 for Kaziranga, 2000 for Nameri and 2016 for Orang. A core area is the inviolate heart of a reserve and the buffer around it is managed for coexistence, so the ratio between the two says a good deal about how a reserve is run.