NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday gave CA|TS accreditation to 14 tiger reserves in the country on the occasion of the International Tiger Day. CA|TS or Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards is a globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage tigers and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
The 14 tiger reserves which have attained the accreditation are Manas Tiger Reserve, Kaziranga Tiger Reserve and Orang Tiger Reserve in Assam, Satpura Tiger Reserve, Kanha Tiger Reserve and Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Kerala, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka and Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in West Bengal also received the honour.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said, "Population of tigers is an indicator of a well-balanced ecosystem. On this occasion of Tiger Day, we are not just protecting our tigers, but we are saving the ecosystem and our forests."
"Other than these 14 tiger reserves, there are three more for which we want to achieve the CA|TS accreditation. We want all 51 of our tiger reserves to get the accreditation and stay protected," he said.
CA|TS is being implemented across 125 sites in seven tiger range countries, and India has the biggest number with 94 sites, out of which, assessment was completed for 20 tiger reserves this year, according to WWF India.