Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla: Chhattisgarh's tiger reserve and the third largest in India

Background

Per the PIB release of 18 November 2024, the Government of Chhattisgarh, on advice of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, notified the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve as the 56th tiger reserve of the country.
It has a total area of 2829.38 sq km, with a core/critical tiger habitat of 2049.2 sq km and a buffer of 780.15 sq km.
The core comprises the Guru Ghasidas National Park and the Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.
It is the third largest tiger reserve in the country, after Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and Manas in Assam.
It is contiguous with the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, forming a landscape complex of nearly 4500 sq km.
With this notification Chhattisgarh has 4 tiger reserves; the NTCA lists them as Achanakmar, Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla, Indravati and Udanti Sitanadi.