Bor, Melghat, Pench, Sahyadri, Nawegaon Nagzira and Tadoba-Andhari: the tiger reserves of Maharashtra under the National Tiger Conservation Authority

Background

Maharashtra's tiger reserves are counted and measured by one Union body, and its own table settles the number. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Union body that oversees tiger reserves, lists six of them in Maharashtra: Bor, Melghat, Nawegaon Nagzira, Pench, Sahyadri and Tadoba-Andhari. Melghat is one of the oldest in the country, in the first group taken up in 1973-74, and the Authority puts its core at 1,500.49 sq km and its buffer at 1,268.03 sq km, for a total of 2,768.52 sq km. Tadoba-Andhari was added in 1993-94, with a core of 625.82 sq km. The Authority's table shows Pench in two States, one in Maharashtra and one in Madhya Pradesh. Sahyadri, Nawegaon Nagzira and Bor are the newer ones in the State, and Bor is the smallest of the six, with a core of 138.12 sq km. Each reserve has a core and a buffer, and the core-and-buffer design is the basis on which the Authority reports every reserve's area.