Why in news?
- The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to declare the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary a tiger reserve.
The wildlife sanctuary
- The sanctuary is spread over 890 sqkm in Bhopal-Reisen forest division of Madhya Pradesh.
- It will be the seventh tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
- About 40 tigers live in the areas falling in the proposed reserve and it will be one of the bigger reserves in the state.
- It has been a wildlife sanctuary since 1976.
- Two large reservoirs, namely Barna Reservoir and Ratapani Dam (Barrusot Lake) are among the major water bodies adjacent to or inside the sanctuary.
- The forest of Ratapani is dry deciduous and moist deciduous type and bamboo overlaps the two aforementioned forest types and covers about one quarter of the forest area.
- Bhimbetka rock shelters are located within this proposed tiger reserve.
