Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is located in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh and was notified as a tiger reserve in 2014. It forms part of the Terai Arc Landscape in the upper Gangetic Plain along the India-Nepal border. The habitat is characterized by sal forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers. The Sharda Sagar Dam extending up to a length of 22 km is on the boundary of the reserve.

Pilibhit is one of the few well-forested districts in Uttar Pradesh. According to an estimate of the year 2018, Pilibhit district has over 800 km2 forests, constituting roughly 23% of the district’s total area. Forests in Pilibhit have at least 65 tiger and a prey including five species of deer. The tiger reserve got the first International award TX2 for doubling the tiger population in a stipulated time.

History
The protected area used to be a timber yielding reserve forest, until it was declared as the 46th tiger reserve in June 2014.

Geography
The northeastern boundary of the reserve is the River Sharda, which forms the Indo-Nepal border, while the southwest boundary is marked by the River Sharda and the River Ghaghara. Pilibhit Tiger Reserve consists of a core area of 602.79 km2 and a buffer area of 127.45 km2 in its periphery. The core area is restricted for human habitation, but there is some amount of disturbance due to traffic on roads passing through the reserve, people collecting forest resources and livestock grazing. A wildlife corridor links Pilibhit Tiger Reserve with Jim Corbett National Park, Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Dudhwa National Park, and Shuklaphanta National Park in Nepal.

Fauna
In spring 2010, a rusty-spotted cat was recorded by camera traps for the first time. Other mammal species present in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve include leopard cat, barasingha, tiger, leopard, fishing cat, barking deer, blackbuck, chital, hog deer, sambar, sloth bear, Indian giant flying squirrel, porcupine, small Indian civet, Indian flying fox, greater short-nosed fruit bat, Indian common yellow bat, painted bat, rhesus macaque, langur, golden jackal, Bengal fox and striped hyena.

The 450 resident bird species include Sarus crane, three hornbill species and six of eagle species, grey partridge, black partridge, swamp francolin, darter, lesser whistling duck, combed duck, peafowl, herons, red junglefowl, cormorants, egrets. Reptiles are represented by marsh crocodile, gharial, five lizard species and several snake species. The river system in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve harbour about 79 fish species.