Uttarakhand has decided to keep Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves open all year

Uttarakhand has decided to keep Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves open all year

Subject : Environment

Context : Uttarakhand Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat announced on Wednesday that the state’s two Tiger Reserves — Corbett and Rajaji — would now remain open for tourism round the year.

Concept :

• Until now, the reserves would remain closed to tourists during the monsoon for 4-5 months every year. The statement has sparked a debate with many warning that tourism activities in the rainy season will disturb tigers in their mating season.

Jim Corbett National Park

• It was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park- the first national park in India.It is located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand. The Corbett national park has highest tiger count from single reserve in the recent Tiger census(carried once in 4 years)
• The park was declared a Tiger Reserve in 1973- the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
• The tiger reserve is situated in the Shivalik hills of Himalayas while administratively it spreads over PauriGarhwal, Nainital and Almora districts of Uttarakhand State in India.

Rajaji National Park:

• It is a national park and tiger reserve that encompasses the Shivaliks, near the foothills of the Himalayas.
• It was declared as a tiger reserve in 2015 and is the second tiger reserve in the Uttarakhand and 48th Tiger Reserve of India.
• The park extends over the Shivalik Range in the north-west to the Rawasan River in the southeast with the Ganges dividing it into two parts.
• Some of the basic features of the Shivalik formations are to be seen in the park and is rightly known as a veritable storehouse of Shivalik biodiversity and ecosystems.
• The western part of the Park consists of the Ramgarh, Kansrao, Motichur, Hardwar, Dholkhand and Chillawali Ranges.