Pench National Park of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala’s Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary of have been designated as the best managed tiger reserves in India. These ratings are based on the evaluation of India’s 50 tiger sanctuaries and the 4th National Tiger Estimation (Tiger census).
The Dampa Tiger Reserve and Rajaji National Park in Mizoram and Uttarakhand respectively, were placed at the bottom of the ladder scoring 42.97% and 44.53% respectively while the top two scored 93.75%.
The sanctuaries were divided into five geographic clusters. The Western Ghats cluster which comprises reserves in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka scored an average of 81%. This cluster includes tiger reserves at Billigiri-Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Bandipur, Nagarhole, Anamalai, Kalakad-Mundantharai, Bhadra, Kali, Periyar, Perambikulam, Sathyamangalam and Mudumalai.
The ones in Sariska and Ranthambore in Rajasthan saw a dip in ratings since 2014 as they were downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘fair’. Kerala has the best maintained reserves followed by Madhya Pradesh. Chhattisgarh was rated as the ‘least performing State’ in reserve management.
