Rajasthan’s Ramgarh Vishdhari Sanctuary was notified as India's 52nd tiger reserve on Monday. The new reserve will provide a secured patch of forest for tigers of Ranthambore to move around, as suggested by the conservationists.

The last tiger census in India that was carried out nearly four years ago showed 2,967 tigers living in the country. Under the Project Tiger, India has made a monumental effort to conserve the tiger population and created some of the largest tiger reserves in the world.

Here are the 10 largest tiger reserves in India:

1. Nagarjunsagar Srisailam: 3296.31 sq km.

The largest tiger reserve of India, Nagarjunsagar Srisailam, is spread over five districts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is home to a vast variety of wild animals, including the Bengal Tiger, leopard, rusty-spotted cat, pangolin, mugger crocodiles, Indian rock python, and innumerable varieties of birds are found here. In the forest a wide variety of shrubs and bamboo thickets also grow in this area..

2. Manas National Park: 3150.92 sq km

Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is a biodiversity hotspot in Assam. It is a natural World Heritage Site, a tiger reserve, an elephant reserve, a biosphere reserve, and an important bird area, which makes it a unique biodiversity spot. As per evolutionary evidence, the area is marked as the entry point of tigers into India..

3. Melghat Tiger Reserve: 2768.52 sq km

Melghat Tiger Reserve is located on the Satpura Hill Range in Maharashtra in Central India. It is a prime habitat of the tiger and a prime biodiversity repository of the state. The reserve is also a catchment area for five major rivers all of which are tributaries of the river Tapti..

4. Similipal National Park: 2750 sq km

Located in Mayurbhanj, Northern Odisha, the Similipal Tiger Reserve has awe-inspiring beauty, grace, power and calmness. It is Odisha’s foremost wildlife sanctuary with a major tiger population along with a huge variety of wild orchids. There are many small waterfalls that add character to the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger in the reserve.

5. Amrabad Tiger Reserve: 2611.39 sq km

The Amrabad Tiger Reserve extends over Nagarkurnool and Nalgonda districts of Telangana State. It is a part of the Nallamala Forest track has rich biological diversity with several endemic species of flora and fauna. The forest tract is home to the largest number of tigers in Telangana.

6. Sunderbans Tiger Reserve: 2584.89 sq km

The Sundarbans is a river delta region located in West Bengal between India and Bangladesh. It is one of the most diverse and productive mangrove ecosystems in the world that is home to the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger. It is also home to a rich variety of wildlife, and represents an interaction between the biotic and abiotic factors in one of the largest mangroves of the world.

7. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve: 2201.7748 sq km

Located on the Indo-Nepal border in the district Lakhimpur-Kheri, Dudhwa National Park represents the best of natural forests and grasslands in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh.

The reserve has sizable populations of tiger and leopard, along with a viable population of a nominate sub-species of the swamp deer or Barasingha , and a population of Indian one-horned rhinoceros, and critically endangered species like the Bengal Florican and the Hispid Hare.

8. Satpura Tiger Reserve: 2133.30797 sq km

Satpura Tiger Reserve is in the south of the river Narmada, in Hoshangabad District of Madhya Pradesh. It is rich in biodiversity and is inhabited by many endangered species. The large land is also important habitat for the protection of tiger and home to almost 14 endangered species.

9. Namdapha Tiger Reserve: 2052.82 sq km

Namdapha National Park & Tiger Reserve is in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The national park has extensive diversity of and a large and diverse species complex exist in the area.

10. Kanha Tiger Reserve: 2051.791 sq km

Kanha National Park is nestled in the Maikal range of Satpuras in Madhya Pradesh. The national park is being popularized as the Tiger reserve and is home for wide ranges of wild creatures like the mighty tigers, Barasingha and the countless species of plants, birds, reptiles and insects. This forest land was the source of inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)