Panna Tiger Reserve

Panna Tiger Reserve is located in the Vindhyan Range and lies in the Panna and Chhatarpur districts in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh in the biogeographic zone 6A Deccan Peninsula central-Hills (Rodgers et al., 2002). The reserve landscape is separated into three sections: the upper Talgaon plateau (Panna Range), the central Hinnauta plateau (Hinnauta Range), and the Ken river valley (Mandla and Chandranagar Ranges). Panna National Park was created in 1981 and declared a Tiger Reserve in 1994. The Reserve is dotted with ancient rock paintings, which are believed to be around two thousand years old. Old relics of the Gondwana period (rule of the tribal people of Central India) are scattered all over the Reserve. One of the most significant environmental aspects of the Reserve is that the district Panna makes the northernmost boundary of the natural distribution of teak and the eastern limit of teakkardhai mixed forests. Panna Tiger Reserve is one of India's most important protected areas in the north-central highlands, as it links the eastern and western state populations of wild animals through the NE-SW running Vindhyan ranges. Extensive plateaus and gorges characterize the terrain of the Reserve. The vegetation type of the Reserve comprises southern tropical dry deciduous teak mixed forest, northern tropical dry deciduous mixed forest, dry deciduous scrub forest, anogeissus pendula forest, Boswellia forest, and dry bamboo brakes (Champion & Seth, 1968).

Description

State : Madhya Pradesh

District : Panna and Chhatarpur

Coordinates : 24°17’ N, 79°30’ E

Area : 1,598.10 Sq.km.

TR Notification year : 1993-1994

Tiger Population : 25 (All India Tiger Esitmation, 2018)