India has a robust network of over 1,000 protected areas covering roughly 5.32% of its geographical area, managed under the Wildlife Protection Act.
These include National Parks (106+), Wildlife Sanctuaries (570+), Conservation Reserves, and Community Reserves focused on habitat preservation. Key species-specific initiatives include [Tiger Reserves] and [Elephant Reserves].
A network of 668 Protected Areas (PAs) has been established, extending over 1,61,221.57 sq. kms. (4.90% of total geographic area), comprising 102 National Parks,
515 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 47 Conservation Reserves and 4 Community Reserves.
The State/Union Territory wise details of PAs in the country with year of notification and area is given at Annexure-I. 39 Tiger Reserves (Annexure-II) and 28 Elephant Reserves
(Annexure-III) have been designated for species specific management of tiger and elephant habitats.
UNESCO has designated 5 Protected Areas as World Heritage Sites.
As the ecosystems and species do not recognise political borders, the concept of Transboundary Protected Areas has been initiated for coordinated conservation of ecological
units and corridors with bilateral and/or multilateral cooperation of the neighbouring
nations. There are 4 categories of the Protected Areas viz, National Parks, Sanctuaries,
Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves.
