Thousands of new trees will link two national parks; provide newhabitats for India’s endangered tigers

A number of local businesses are partnering with the governement of Madhya Pradesh and the United Nations’

Environment Program to plant thousands of trees throughout the state in one of India’s largest-ever reforestationprojects.

The project calls for 300,000 new trees to be planted over the course of the next three years to increase the totalforest cover between Kanha Nationial Park and Pench National Park in the central Indian state of Madhya

Pradesh. The project will link the two national parks, some 70 miles away from each other using the localhighways, with an unbroken chain of protected forest officials hope will enlarge wildlife populations.

“This project also hugely focuses on encouraging tiger breeding and movement in the Kanha-Pench corridor,” a

local business leader working with the project recently told the Times of India.

The reforestation project hopes to create new habitats to encourage growth in the national parks’ tiger

populations.

The project will also produce hundreds of jobs over the next three years, which will mainly employ women fromvillages surronding the reforestation areas. Other project goals include developing sustainable agricultural practices

in the region to better protect the new habitats.

"Approximately 45% of India's land is degraded primarily due to deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices,

and mining and excessive groundwater extraction. More than two thirds of this can be regenerated,” A projectcoordinator with the program said.