Environment and Disaster Management › Protected areas and habitats

Protected areas, tiger reserves and eco sensitive zones

Protected areas, tiger reserves and eco sensitive zones as places: boundaries, relocation and the clearances given for projects inside them. Prelims has asked which river flows through a park, which tiger reserve has the largest critical tiger habitat, and under which law eco sensitive zones are declared.

Foundation note: Protected areas: the categories

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2020: where the musk deer is found in the wild
Prelims 2017: the reserve that connects the Eastern and Western Ghats
Prelims 2013: the river flowing through each named national park, Kaziranga among them

Showing 2 of 2 articles, those that changed from 1 July to 30 September 2026.Show all

Kaziranga National Park

Prelims and Mains

Kaziranga National Park in Assam, on the Brahmaputra floodplain, holds the largest population of the greater one horned rhinoceros.

It is a World Heritage Site since 1985 and a tiger reserve since 2007.
Every monsoon the river floods the grassland and the animals move to the Karbi Anglong hills to the south.
So the fight over Kaziranga is not about the park but about the hills beside it.
An eco sensitive zone is notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which lets the Centre restrict activity on land outside a park's boundary.
Its width is fixed park by park in its own notification, so the ten kilometre figure in the guidelines is a starting point to be argued over rather than a rule.

Kaziranga National Park

Where
- Assam, on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra, which forms its northern boundary
- The Diphlu runs through it, and the Karbi Anglong hills rise to its south
What it holds
- About two thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceros, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List
Why the hills matter
- Animals cross to the Karbi Anglong hills when the monsoon floods the grassland
- The same hills carry an elephant corridor

Standard park facts; the dispute over the park is reported in The Hindu, 24 August 2026

What changed

27 Aug 2026New
- Assam moved to seek a cut in Kaziranga's eco sensitive zone from ten kilometres to one to three, which activists say would open the land to mining and tourism.
- Days earlier the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee had pulled up Assam for not stopping mining in the Karbi Anglong hills, banned since 2019.
The Hindu, 27 Aug 2026: Kaziranga under pressure from mining and a smaller buffer zone (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 24 Aug 2026: Supreme Court panel pulls up Assam government for inaction on mining near Kaziranga (opens in a new tab)

Manas National Park

Prelims and Mains

Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve lies in Assam on the Bhutan border.

It is a World Heritage Site, a biosphere reserve and an elephant reserve, and is known for the pygmy hog, the hispid hare and the golden langur.
It falls within the Bodoland Territorial Region, run under the Sixth Schedule by the Bodoland Territorial Council, which is why orders on the park name the Council beside the State.
A tiger reserve's core is the strictly protected inner zone kept free of human use, with a buffer of shared use around it.

What changed

7 Aug 2026BriefThe Gauhati High Court ordered Assam and the Bodoland Territorial Council to halt fresh encroachment in Manas. The petition alleged encroachment of the core area, including land held by a government seed farm. The Hindu, 7 Aug 2026: Gauhati High Court seeks status quo on encroachment in Manas Tiger Reserve (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

The Hanle Dark Sky Reserve · on Chemicals, noise, light and soil pollution
The Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) in Ladakh is India's first and only dark sky reserve, notified by Ladakh's administration in December 2022.
Mining buffers around wetland reserves · on Wetlands and Ramsar sites
A mining buffer is a belt around a protected area inside which mining needs prior approval.
Pumped storage · on Storage, batteries and electric mobility
A pumped storage project pumps water uphill when power is cheap and releases it through turbines when demand peaks, so it stores energy rather than generating it.
The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
An Ecologically Sensitive Area is a zone notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which may cover a whole landscape such as the Western Ghats rather than a belt around one park.