The
Palamau Tiger Reserve is located within the civil administrative
district of Palamau in the South Chhotanagpur plateau
of Bihar. The area is prone to severe droughts, average
rainfall varying between 700 to 900 mm. The total area
is 928 sq. kms, and the core area 213 sq. kms. Palamau
is situated within the lndo-Malayan realm and is rich
in flora and fauna and amongst the predators besides
the tiger are leopards, wolves, wild dogs and jungle
cats. Sloth bear, four horned antelope and mouse dear
are some of the herbivores. There are 107 villages in
the buffer, 3 in the core with a human population of
65,000 and a livestock population of 45,000. The core
is distributed in 2 parts, the actual core and the recently
inducted 'Satellite core'. The core area was declared
a National Park in September, 1989. The Sanctuary was
brought under Project Tiger in 1973 and is among the
first 9 such Tiger Reserves of the country. The western
part of the Reserve is composed of dry deciduous forests
and the other part shows characters of moist mixed deciduous
nature. The entire area has a good distribution of bamboo
breaks. The herbarium recently prepared by the Tiger
Reserve authorities records a good number of medicinal
plants.
Flora
 The
lush landscape consists of stately Sal in the valley
and lower slopes, and dry deciduous forests on the upper
slopes. There is also abundant bamboo and scattered
open grassy patches are common too. An estimated 44
tigers inhabit this reserve.
Fauna
Tiger,
leopard, spotted deer, sambar, barking deer, wolf, wild
dog, elephant, mouse deer, pangolin, four-horned antilope,
ratel etc.
History
Palamau
was one of the initial nine Tiger Reserves launched
in 1973. Prior to this the management of these forests
was highly commercialised, with extensive grazing and
frequent fires. |
