Protected Areas: Tiger, elephant and biosphere reserves

UNESCO states that biosphere reserves exist on every continent except Antarctica. Antarctica has no resident communities and is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System, so the people-and-nature model of a biosphere reserve does not fit it. Australia did withdraw many of its early sites between 2002 and 2020, but it still has biosphere reserves in the Network.

The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve, notified by India in 2009, lies in the trans- Himalayan Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh at altitudes of about 3,300 to 6,600 m. It covers 7,770 sq km, including Pin Valley National Park and the Kibber and Chandratal wildlife sanctuaries, and was designated by UNESCO on 27 September 2025 at Hangzhou as India's 13th site in the World Network. Ladakh's Hemis region is also cold desert, but it is not a biosphere reserve.

Manas (notified 1989) and Dibru-Saikhowa (notified 1997) are both biosphere reserves of Assam. Neither is in UNESCO's World Network: as of October 2026, India's five reserves outside the Network are Manas, Dibru-Saikhowa, Dehang-Dibang, Great Rann of Kutch and Seshachalam. Manas National Park is a World Heritage Site, but that is a separate UNESCO label. So only statement 2 is correct.

The Seville Strategy and the Statutory Framework came out of the 1995 Seville conference and were approved by UNESCO's General Conference that year. The Lima Action Plan (2016-2025) was adopted at the 4th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves in Lima in 2016 to carry out the MAB Strategy 2015-2025. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets, by contrast, were adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at Nagoya in 2010. So three are MAB documents.

Of India's 18 notified biosphere reserves, 13 were in the World Network as of October 2026, the latest being Cold Desert (September 2025). The five that are not in the Network are Manas, Dibru-Saikhowa, Dehang-Dibang, Great Rann of Kutch and Seshachalam Hills. Panna joined the Network in 2020. So four of the listed five are outside the Network.

Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (notified 1989) covers the Indian part of the Ganga– Brahmaputra delta in West Bengal, the world's largest contiguous mangrove tract. MoEFCC records that both Sundarban and Gulf of Mannar joined UNESCO's World Network in 2001. Sundarbans National Park, in the reserve's core, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. All three statements are correct.

Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in Uttarakhand (notified 1988) has two core zones totalling about 712 sq km: Nanda Devi National Park and the Valley of Flowers National Park. It joined UNESCO's World Network in 2004. The World Heritage property 'Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks' covers only these two national parks (inscribed 1988, extended 2005), not the whole biosphere reserve with its buffer and transition areas. So statements 1 and 2 are correct.

Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (notified 1989), at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has two core areas: Campbell Bay National Park in the north and Galathea National Park in the south. Its indigenous communities are the Shompen, a semi- nomadic forest people, and the Nicobarese, mainly along the coast. The Jarawa live in the Middle and South Andaman Islands, far to the north. UNESCO added the reserve to the World Network in 2013. So statements 1 and 3 are correct.

National Parks is correct (b). National Parks have the strictest protection under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: no grazing and no collection of forest produce or biomass; rights are settled and extinguished. (d) is wrong: sanctuaries may allow some regulated rights of local people. (a) is wrong: biosphere reserves have buffer and transition zones where people live and use resources. (c) is wrong: Ramsar wetlands follow the 'wise use' principle and allow sustainable use.

Notice the numbers: India has about 106 national parks and over 570 sanctuaries. The Forest Rights Act, 2006 also recognises community rights, which creates tension in critical wildlife habitats. Conservation and community reserves (2002 amendment) are other categories. Trap: only the core legal category bans all collection.

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Nagarhole, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad lie in the Cauvery basin (c). All three sit in the Nilgiri hill region, drained by Cauvery tributaries. Item 1 is right: Nagarhole (Karnataka) is drained by the Kabini. Item 3 is right: Sathyamangalam (Tamil Nadu) lies along the Moyar and Bhavani. Item 4 is right: Wayanad (Kerala) is drained by the Kabini and its streams. Item 2 is wrong: Papikonda National Park is on the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, where the river cuts a gorge through the Eastern Ghats.

Notice the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1986), India's first, which links Nagarhole, Bandipur, Mudumalai, Wayanad and Silent Valley. Other Cauvery tributaries include the Hemavati, Shimsha, Arkavathi and Amaravati.

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Option (a) lists the parts of Agasthyamala (a). The Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve, set up in 2001 at the southern tip of the Western Ghats on the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border, includes the Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala and the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. It joined UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2016. It is home to the Kani tribe, known for the Arogyapacha herb. Option (b) describes the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India's first (1986). Options (c) and (d) list protected areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with Mukurthi wrongly added from the Nilgiris.

India has 18 biosphere reserves, of which 13 are in the UNESCO network. Notice that Cold Desert (Himachal) joined in 2025.

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Sathyamangalam links the two Ghats (a). Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Erode district, Tamil Nadu, sits where the Western and Eastern Ghats meet. It joins the Nilgiri Biosphere landscape, including Mudumalai, Bandipur and BRT Hills (Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple), giving tigers and elephants a vital corridor. It was declared a tiger reserve in 2013. The other options are wrong because Nallamala (b), home of the Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam reserve, and Seshachalam (d) lie entirely in the Eastern Ghats, while Nagarhole (c) is entirely in the Western Ghats.

BRT Hills is the other well-known meeting point of the two ranges. Notice the Moyar river gorge, which separates the Nilgiris from the Sathyamangalam forests.

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Bandipur, Manas and Sundarbans are correct (b). Bandipur (Karnataka), Manas (Assam) and Sundarbans (West Bengal) were among the first nine Project Tiger reserves of 1973–74. Item 2 is wrong: Bhitarkanika (Odisha) is a mangrove national park and Ramsar site famous for saltwater crocodiles, not a tiger reserve. So (a), (c) and (d) fail.

Notice the current count: India has 58 tiger reserves (the latest being Madhav, MP, in March 2025). The 2022 estimate counted at least 3,167 tigers (about 3,682 by full analysis), about 75% of the world's wild tigers. Odisha's tiger reserves are Similipal and Satkosia. Trap: Bhitarkanika sounds like a big Odisha reserve but is for crocodiles.

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Biorock is used to restore damaged coral reefs (a). Biorock, or mineral accretion, passes a weak, safe electric current through a steel frame placed under the sea. Minerals dissolved in sea water, mainly calcium carbonate, build up on the frame like limestone. Coral pieces fixed to it grow fast and resist stress better. Option (b) describes bio-based building materials. Option (c) describes shale gas survey. Option (d) describes salt licks for wildlife.

Notice that India's Zoological Survey of India, with the Gujarat Forest Department, tried biorock in the Gulf of Kachchh in 2017. Coral reefs face bleaching from warming seas; the world saw its fourth global bleaching event in 2023–24.

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