New Delhi, May 23 : The National Tiger Conservation Authority, in its third meeting here, has assured that four new tiger reserves will be created in the country. One park will be treated as a separate reserve, it added.

These reserves are Sunabeda Tiger Reserve in Orissa, the Shahyadri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh and Ratapani Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. All four states had earlier submitted proposals to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The Authority has also accorded approval to a proposal from Karnataka to treat the Nagarahole National Park as a separate reserve. The reserve is presently a part of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

The meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of S Regupathy, also discussed the reports of committees constituted for the refinement of monitoring processes and strategies for tiger reserves affected by extremist disturbances.

The Authority also took note of the recent all India tiger estimation findings and protection strategy in tiger reserves.

Several other proposals, including funding support for research and monitoring through the Wildlife Institute of India, contractual arrangement for NTCA staff, radio telemetry monitoring of tigers, awareness programme, support to Non-Governmental Organisations with MOU for capacity building, research and tiger estimation and tiger reintroduction proposals were also approved.(ANI)