Conservation Reserve and Community Reserve

Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves are protected-area categories inserted into the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002, through new Sections 36A to 36D (Chapter IV-A). They were created because the two older categories, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, impose restrictions too stringent for landscapes where human habitation, land use and livelihood activity continue, particularly buffer zones, corridors linking existing protected areas, and community-managed commons with genuine conservation value. A Conservation Reserve is declared by a State Government over land owned by the government, typically land adjacent to a National Park or Wildlife Sanctuary or forming a corridor connecting two protected areas, after consultation with local communities. A Community Reserve is declared over private or community-owned land where an individual or community has voluntarily come forward to conserve wildlife and its habitat. Both categories are governed with community participation through a Conservation Reserve Management Committee or a Community Reserve Management Committee respectively, giving local stakeholders a formal role that National Parks and Sanctuaries, managed directly by the forest department, do not provide. Because these categories permit continued human use while securing conservation outcomes, they function in India's domestic law much like the internationally discussed category of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM), and they are the natural domestic vehicle for expanding India's effective conservation footprint without the displacement and conflict that new National Parks or Sanctuaries typically generate. India's 1,014 protected areas (2026) include 115 Conservation Reserves and 220 Community Reserves, alongside 106 National Parks and 573 Wildlife Sanctuaries.

• 1 Introduced by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002, inserting Sections 36A to 36D (Chapter IV-A) into the WPA, 1972.
• 2 Conservation Reserve: declared by a State Government over government-owned land, often adjoining a PA or forming a corridor between two PAs.
• 3 Community Reserve: declared over private or community land where owners/community volunteer for conservation.
• 4 Both governed through dedicated management committees with local community participation, unlike National Parks/Sanctuaries.
• 5 Created because National Park and Sanctuary status is too restrictive for landscapes where people continue to live and work.
• 6 India (2026): 115 Conservation Reserves and 220 Community Reserves, alongside 106 National Parks and 573 Wildlife Sanctuaries, totalling 1,014 protected areas.
• 7 Function domestically much like the internationally discussed Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) category.
• 8 In 2026 the Supreme Court extended a 10-km mining restriction around the Asan Wetland Conservation Reserve to wetland conservation reserves nationwide.

The Asan Conservation Reserve in Uttarakhand, at the Asan-Yamuna confluence and a Ramsar site since 2020, is a Conservation Reserve rather than a National Park precisely because it sits on government land requiring a lighter-touch, community-consulted management regime.