Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has notified the Mukundra hills sanctuary as the third tiger reserve in the state. The reserve area will be over 759 sq km spread between four districts of Kota, Bundi, Chittorgarh and Jhalawar near the Ranthambore tiger reserve. “Nearly 417 sq km have been earmarked as the core tiger habitat, while 342.82 sq km has been notified as the buffer zone,” senior a forest official. The other two tiger reserves of Ranthambore and Sariska have a core area nearly thrice this size. “We have declared Mukundra hills national park as a tiger reserve. When the budget announcement was made last fiscal, we had taken the National Tiger Conservation Authority into confidence. Now that we have declared it as a reserve, we will be forwarding notification to them,” said A S Brar, head of forest forces and chief wildlife warden, Rajasthan. According to Brar, a three-member committee had been constituted under the then chief wildlife warden A Choubey which included a member from state wildlife board and chief conservator of forests, Kota, which surveyed the area.