Private protected areas of India

Private protected areas of India refer to protected areas inside India whose land rights are owned by an individual or a corporation / organization, and where the habitat and resident species are offered some kind of protection from exploitative activities like hunting, logging, etc. The Government of India did not provide any legal or physical protection to such entities, but in an important amendment introduced by the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002, has agreed to protect communally owned areas of ecological value.

Private ownership

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In pre-British India, and erstwhile British India and associated suzerainties, large tracts of wilderness were under private ownership, typically under the ownership of the royal families of the suzerainties. Animals and habitat in these tracts were protected by royal decree and royal forces. Later, after the advent of the British, these lands were protected by personal guards of the royal families.

However, these lands were usually used as hunting grounds for the maharajahs and other noble families, so while the animals and habitat were accorded protection from external entities, hunting for sport by the owners of the land was commonly practised. Even so, some of such hunting was done on a sustainable basis, and some wildlife like the Asiatic cheetah were trained to hunt in such hunting grounds.

After independence, the political integration of India caused most of the royal families to lose their ownership rights to these lands, and these were converted into reserved forests, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Some of India's most famous protected areas had their origins in privately owned protected lands. Some of these are listed below.

From the Northern princely states

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  • Dachigam National Park - Once the private hunting preserve of the Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh, it was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1951 after the accession of Kashmir, and was designated a national park in 1981.
  • The Gadoli and Manda Khal Fee Simple Estates in the Pauri Garhwal district of the western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.[1]

From the Western princely states

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From the Central princely states

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  • Bandhavgarh National Park - The area around the overgrown Bandhavgarh Fort were the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Rewa. After the union of Rewa with India, the maharaja still retained hunting rights to the area until 1968, when the Maharaja handed over the hunting grounds (with the exception of the fort) to be declared a national park. A special permit is still required to visit the fort.
  • Madhav National Park - The area around Shivpuri were the private hunting grounds of the Scindia royal family of Gwalior. Upon accession to India, the grounds were designated to be Madhya Bharat National Park (1959), later being renamed to Shivpuri National Park and finally to Madhav National Park.

From the Southern princely states

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  • Periyar National Park - The region around the Periyar lake was fashioned as a private game sanctuary by the maharaja of Travancore to stop the encroachment of tea plantations. Founded as Nellikkampatty Game Sanctuary in 1934, it was consolidated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1950 after the political integration of India, and designated as a national park in 1982.
  • Bandipur National Park - These were private hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Mysore. In 1930, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV declared Bandipur a game reserve of 80 km2, and in 1941 expanded it to 800 km2, reinventing it as Venugopala Wildlife Park. After the Kingdom of Mysore joined India, the park was made a Project Tiger reserve in 1973, and a national park in 1985.
  • Nagarhole National Park - The park area and its surrounding regions were the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Mysore. After the merger of Mysore with India, Nagarhole first became a wildlife sanctuary in 1955, and later became a national park in 1988.
  • Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park - This region was the private hunting ground of the Nizam of Hyderabad. After the annexure of Hyderabad in 1956, it was wildlife sanctuary in 1975, and a national park in 1994.

Among the other former hunting grounds of the Nizam of Hyderabad (once one of the richest persons in the world) are the Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Wildlife Sanctuary. Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary was also privately owned by the Maharaja of Mysore before he was persuaded by Salim Ali to declare it a wildlife sanctuary in 1940.

From the Eastern princely states

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  • Simlipal National Park - Initially a hunting ground for the Maharajas of Mayurbhanj. After the merger of Mayurbhanj with India in 1949, it became a reserved forest in 1956. It then became a tiger reserve (1973), wildlife sanctuary (1979), national park (1980) and finally a biosphere reserve (1994).
  • Manas National Park - The area was initially the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar and the Raja of Gauripur. It was declared a protected area - Manas Sanctuary, as early as 1928, but the hunting rights of the royal families were not revoked. The sanctuary finally turned fully protected when it became a tiger reserve in 1973, and a national park in 1990.

However, royal families were allowed to keep personal land holdings below a certain threshold area, and hence some small scale privately held protected areas still exist in India.

Non-profit ownership

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The biggest non-profit private organization which acquires wilderness tracts for development into private protected areas, the Nature Conservancy - does not operate in India, but has shown interest in expanding its operations to the country.

The World Land Trust, another non-profit organization, in partnership with the Wildlife Trust of India has funded two significant privately owned protected land holdings in India. The purpose of the holdings are to provide migration corridors to herds of Indian elephants, and the corresponding project is called the Wild Lands Corridor. The two corridors are:

The introduction of the protected area category community reserves under the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 has introduced legislation for providing government protection to community held lands, which could be used for obtaining state protection in non-profit privately held lands of ecological value. (See Conservation reserves and community reserves of India)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Chowfin, S.M.; Leslie, A.J. (2021-03-01). "Using birds as biodindicators of forest restoration progress: A preliminary study". Trees, Forests and People. 3: 100048. doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2020.100048. ISSN 2666-7193.
  2. ^ Site Archived 2007-03-10 at the Wayback Machine for the Wild lands corridor, World Land Trust website