Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary

Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary, covering about 1197km2, is the largest wildlife sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh state in India. This wildlife sanctuary is a part of 5500 km2 of forested landscape. It is located in the centre of the state covering parts of Sagar, Damoh, Narsinghpur, and Raisen Districts. It is about 90 km from Jabalpur and about 56 km from Sagar.It is a potential site for the Cheetah Reintroduction in India. The cheetah prey density were reasonable and based on current prey density the area could support about 25 cheetahs. 750 km2 area was recommended by relocation of 23 villages. After relocating the species, the site could support over 50 cheetahs and Nauradehi could harbour over 70 individuals.The wildlife refuge is divided into six ranges: Mohli Range, Singpur Range, Jhapan Range, Sarra Range, D'Gaon Range, Nauradehi RangeHistoryThis forest area was made a sanctuary in 1975.GeographyThe protected area sits astride two major river basins of India, namely the Narmada, flowing west to the Arabian Sea and the Ganges, flowing east to the Bay of Bengal. Three-fourths of the wildlife sanctuary falls in the basin of Ganges tributary, the Yamuna River, of which the Ken River is a tributary, and one fourth of the sanctuary falls in the Naramada basin. The north flowing Kopra River, Bamner River, Vyarma River and Bearma River, which are tributaries of the Ken River, are the major rivers of this protected area. Some smaller streams flow southerly to the Narmada river in the south of the sanctuary.