India, Oct. 10 -- Madhya Pradesh's Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary near state capital Bhopal will soon be notified as the state's eighth tiger reserve, people familiar with the matter said.

Forest department principal secretary Ashok Varnwal said all formalities have been completed. "Now, the notification will soon be released. This will be the first tiger reserve in India which is located near any capital city," he said. The sanctuary is about 60km from Bhopal.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) gave its in-principle approval to the tiger reserve in August 2008

In 2019, the Kamal Nath government took steps to issue the notification of the tiger reserve but it was not approved by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government that came...