Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR)

About Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR):

• The Palamau Tiger Reserve is in the western side of Latehar district on the Chhota Nagpur plateau in Jharkhand.
• This tiger reserve is surrounded by the Auranga River in the North.
• It is one of the first 9 tiger reserves created in the country at the inception of ‘Project Tiger’.
• It is the first reserve in the world in which a tiger census was carried out as a pugmark count, as early as 1932 under the supervision of J.W. Nicholson
• This Tiger reserve zone is the watershed area for 3 important rivers Koel, Burha, and Auranga.
• Many aquifers locally called ‘Chuan’ are also present inside the reserve. A sulfur hot spring ‘Tatha’ is present near Barwadih.
• Flora: The project area is constituted mainly of Sal forests, mixed deciduous forests, and bamboo groves.
• Fauna: The keystone species are Tigers, Elephants, Leopards, Grey Wolf, Gaur, Sloth Bear, etc.

What is Project Tiger?

• The Government of India has taken a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching “Project Tiger” in 1973. 
• Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change with an overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Q1) What is a Hot spring?

Hot spring is also called a thermal spring which springs with water at temperatures substantially higher than the air temperature of the surrounding region. Most hot springs discharge groundwater that is heated by shallow intrusions of magma (molten rock) in volcanic areas

Source: To protect wildlife in Palamu, rail tracks may be shifted out of the tiger reserve