Social Geography
Dandami Madia tribes
- Context: Members of the Dandami Madia tribes recently performed their traditional Bison Horn Maria dance during a village festival held at Judiya Para in Jagdalpur.
- Performed during festivals, especially the Madai Mela (Maa Danteshwari Temple festival).
- Dandami Maria, also known by other names like Bison Horn Maria and Khalpati Maria.
- It is a tribal community which lives in Chhattisgarh.
- They have derived their name from their unique custom of wearing a distinctive head-gear, which resembles the horns of a wild bison.
- The Dandami Madia tribe primarily speaks Dandami Maria, while some also use Gondi dialects of Dravidian origin.
Environment and ecology
Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve
- Context: Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (Nauradehi) in Sagar district will be developed as Madhya Pradesh’s third cheetah habitat.
- Nauradehi will be the first cheetah habitat in India where cheetahs must coexist with apex predators (25 tigers along with wolves, wild dogs, panthers, and crocodiles).
- Kuno and Gandhi Sagar had predator-free landscapes before cheetah introduction.
About Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve
- It is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, declared in 1975.
- The entire Sanctuary is situated on the upper Vindhyan plateau within the Deccan Peninsula biogeographic region.
- NWS acts as a corridor for Panna Tiger Reserve and Satpura Tiger Reserve while indirectly connecting Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve via Rani Durgawati Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Rivers: Three fourth of the sanctuary falls in the Yamuna (Ganges) basin and one fourth of the sanctuary falls in the Narmada basin.
- The Kopra River, Bamner River, Bearma River, which are tributaries of the Ken River, are the major rivers of this protected area.
