Wildlife Corridor

Subject: Environment

Context:

Maharashtra state forest department declared 29.53 sqkm area of Dodamarg forest range, which is wildlife corridor in Sindhudurg district as ‘Tillari Conservation Reserve’.

Concept:

• The 38-km-long Dodamarg wildlife corridor that connects Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra to Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka frequently witnesses elephant and tiger movement.

Wildlife corridors

• A wildlife corridor is a way of connecting fragmented habitats. The corridor allows movement between isolated patches of habitat without other disturbances, such as traffic or development.
• Wildlife corridors are also known as habitat corridors or green corridors.
• These green corridors are also designed to keep animals out of danger of highways, busy roads, and other areas where their traditional migratory patterns intersect with potential dangerous manmade places.

Conservation reserve

• Conservation reserves and community reserves in India are terms denoting protected areas of India which typically act as buffer zones to or connectors and migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved and protected forests of India.
• Such areas are designated as conservation areas if they are uninhabited and completely owned by the Government of India but used for subsistence by communities and community areas if part of the lands is privately owned.
• These protected area categories were first introduced in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 − the amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
• These categories were added because of reduced protection in and around existing or proposed protected areas due to private ownership of land, and land use.