| Wildlife of India |
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There are four categories of protected areas in India, constituted under theWildlife Protection Act, 1972. Tiger reserves consist of areas under national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. There are 53 tiger reserves in India.[1] As of January 2023,[update] theprotected areas of India cover 173,629.52 square kilometres (67,038.73 sq mi), roughly 5.28% of the total geographical area of the country.[2]
India has the following kinds ofprotected areas, in the sense of the word designated byIUCN:
National parks in India areIUCN category IIprotected areas. India's firstnational park was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, now known asJim Corbett National Park,Uttarakhand. By 1970, India only had five national parks. In 1972, India enacted theWildlife Protection Act andProject Tiger in 1973 to safeguard the habitats ofconservation reliant species. As of January 2023,[update] India has 106 national parks covering 44,402.95 square kilometres (17,144.07 sq mi), roughly 1.35% of the total geographical area of the country.[3]
Wildlife sanctuaries of India are classified asIUCN Category IV protected areas. Between 1936 and 2022, 567 wildlife sanctuaries were established in the country that cover 122,564.86 km2 (47,322.56 sq mi), roughly 3.73% of the geographical area of the country.[4] Among these, the 53 tiger reserves[1] are governed byProject Tiger, and are of special significance for the conservation of theBengal tiger.
The Indian government has established 18 biosphere reserves[5] (categories roughly correspondingly toIUCN Category VProtected areas) to protect larger areas of natural habitat than a typicalnational park oranimal sanctuary, and that often include one or more national parks or reserves, along with buffer zones that are open to some economic uses. Protection is granted not only to theflora andfauna of the protected region, but also to the human communities who inhabit these regions, and their ways of life.
Reserved forests andprotected forest (IUCN Category IV orVI, depending on protection accorded): These are forested lands where logging, hunting, grazing and other activities may be permitted on a sustainable basis to members of certain communities. In reserved forests, explicit permission is required for such activities. In protected forests, such activities are allowed unless explicitly prohibited. Thus, in general reserved forests enjoy a higher degree of protection with respect to protected forests.
Conservation reserves andcommunity reserves inIndia are terms denoting protected areas of India which typically act as buffer zones to or connectors and migration corridors between establishednational parks,wildlife sanctuaries andreserved and protected forests of India. Such areas are designated as conservation areas if they are uninhabited and completely owned by theGovernment of India but used for subsistence by communities, and community areas if part of the lands are privately owned. Administration of such reserves would be through local people and local agencies like thegrampanchayat, as in the case of communal forests. (SeeCommunal forests of India)
A "Common Important Forest" inIndia is a forest governed by local communities in a way compatible withsustainable development. Such forests are typically calledvillage forests orpanchayat forests, reflecting the fact that the administration and resource use of the forest occurs at the village andpanchayat (an elected rural body) levels. Hamlets, villages and communities of villages may actually administer such a forest.[6] Such community forests are usually administered by a locally elected body, usually called theForest Protection Committee,Village Forest Committee or theVillage Forest Institution. Such committees are known asVan Panchayats in theKumaon Division ofUttarakhand,Forest Co-operative Societies inHimachal Pradesh andVan Samrakshan Samitis inAndhra Pradesh. Legislation pertaining to communal forests vary from state to state, but typically the state government retains some administrative control over matters like staff appointment, and penalization of offenders. Such forests typically conform to theIUCN Category VI Protected Areas, but protection may be enforced by the local communities or the government depending on local legislation.Maharashtra is the state with the most forest land whileHaryana has the least.
Private protected areas of India refer toprotected areas insideIndia whose land rights are owned by an individual or a corporation / organization, and where the habitat and resident species are offered some kind of protection from exploitative activities like hunting, logging, etc. TheGovernment of India did not provide any legal or physical protection to such entities, but in an important amendment introduced by theWildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002, has agreed to protect communally owned areas of ecological value.
Conservation Areas inIndia refer to well-demarcated large geographical entities with an established conservation plan, and were part of a joint Indo-US project on "landscape management and protection". The project ran from 1996 to 2002. These areas are home to manyConservation reliant species.
