BENGALURU: Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR), which has the highest population of big cats in Karnataka, has been adjudged the second best-managed tiger reserve in India out of 53 such facilities in the country in All India Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) 2022.
This is the first time that BTR, categorized as an excellent protected area (PA), crossed a 90% score in the evaluation. In the MEE survey, Bandipur scored 93.18%, just 1.35 percentage points behind Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, which was adjudged the best-managed PA.
MEE is conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Wildlife Institute of India and the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF&CC).
P Ramesh Kumar, BTR director, came in for praise from Amit Mallick, inspector general of forests (IGF), Project Tiger. Ramesh attributed BTR's success to the frontline employees at the protected area and said this was the reserve's best-ever performance in the assessment.
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