Debrigarh awaits tiger reserve status after big cat struts in

Bhubaneswar: Two months after a Royal Bengal Tiger walked into Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary which after 2018 did not have a big cat, all eyes are on the state government as to how soon it notifies the sanctuary as a tiger reserve after the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the proposal early this month. In 2018, the decomposed carcass of a Royal Bengal Tiger was found inside the sanctuary. Three poachers, who had been arrested, had confessed that they had laid a trap to kill the tiger.
After the notification by the state government, Debrigarh will become a tiger reserve, third in the state and first in western Odisha. The reserve, according to the recommendation of NTCA in the approval, will have a total area of 804 sq km with sanctuary area of 353 sq km without human habitations as core. Inside the core area, there is no revenue village.
S K Popli, principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden, said following NTCA proposal, notification by the state government is mandatory to accord tiger reserve status to it officially. The government will take a call on when to notify it as a tiger reserve. “Debrigarh has huge potential to become a tiger reserve and the fact that a sub-adult male tiger walked into it on its own to the reserve in early December last year is because Debrigarh has impressive prey density (density of herbivore population),” said Popli.
Besides the lone male Royal Bengal Tiger, prey animals such as bison, sambar, chital, chowsingha, wild boar, deer and leopards are usually sighted in Debrigarh. The Debrigarh sanctuary bears unique distinction as it is located at the junction of central and eastern India’s forest with three sanctuaries — Achnakmar and Udanti in Chhattisgarh and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh having contiguity with each other.