Banipur Tiger Reserve

Why is in news? Bandipur Yuva Mitra educational programme for children to be jointly organised by NMNH and Banipur Tiger Reserve

National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), a subordinate office of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi signed a MoU with Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Karnataka Forest Department to jointly organize a string of educational programmes for the school children at Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Regional Museum of Natural History, Mysore, through an educational programme titled “BANDIPUR YUVA MITRA”.

Bandipur National Park is a national park covering 868.63 sq km in Chamarajnagar district in the Indian state of Karnataka.

It was established in 1973 under Project Tiger. In 1985, by including adjacent areas from Venugopala Wildlife Park, it was enlarged and named as Bandipur National Park.

It is situated in two contiguous districts (Mysore and Chamarajanagar) of Karnataka and is located at the tri-junction area of the States Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It forms a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

It lies in one of the richest biodiversity areas of the country. It is surrounded by Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) in the South, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the South-west.

The Kabini Reservoir separates the Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserve on the North-west.

The park is located between the Kabini river in the north and the Moyar river in the south. The Nugu river runs through the park.

The park has a variety of biomes including dry deciduous forests, moist deciduous forests and shrublands. The wide range of habitats help support a diverse range of organisms.

The highest point in the park is on a hill called Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, where there is a Hindu temple at the summit.

Bandipur has typical tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. The dry and hot period usually begins in early March and can last till the arrival of the monsoon rains in June.

Other Tiger Reserves in Karnataka: Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve, Biligiriranganatha Swamy Temple(BRT) Tiger Reserve,and so on.

There are 53 tiger reserves in India governed by Project Tiger which is administered by National Tiger Conservation Authority.