Bihar's only tiger reserve, Valmiki, covers 899.38 square kilometres of core and buffer

Background

Bihar's biodiversity is in the news this week because the National Biodiversity Authority has just released the State's share of benefits from farm biological resources, and the State's conservation backbone is the Valmiki Tiger Reserve.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority's list of tiger reserves carries Valmiki, Bihar, at serial number 18, with its protected area notified in 1989-90 and the tiger reserve itself notified in 2012.
Its core area measures 598.45 square kilometres and its buffer area 300.93 square kilometres, giving a total of 899.38 square kilometres.
Valmiki is the only tiger reserve in Bihar on that list.
A tiger reserve under the Wild Life (Protection) Act has a core area kept inviolate for tigers and a surrounding buffer where regulated human use is allowed.