Sections 36A to 36D: Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves

In one line

Two categories added in 2002 for the land between the protected areas and the land the community itself offers.

In exam wording: section 36A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 empowers the State Government, after having consultations with the local communities, to declare any area owned by the Government, particularly areas adjacent to National Parks and sanctuaries and those areas which link one protected area with another, as a conservation reserve for protecting landscapes, seascapes, flora and fauna and their habitat, with a proviso requiring the prior concurrence of the Central Government where the reserve includes land owned by it; section 36B requires the State Government to constitute a conservation reserve management committee to advise the Chief Wild Life Warden; section 36C empowers the State Government, where the community or an individual has volunteered to conserve wild life and its habitat, to declare any private or community land not comprised within a National Park, sanctuary or conservation reserve as a community reserve, for protecting fauna, flora and traditional or cultural conservation values and practices, and provides that after the notification no change in the land use pattern shall be made except in accordance with a resolution passed by the management committee and approved by the State Government; and section 36D constitutes the community reserve management committee as the authority responsible for conserving, maintaining and managing the reserve.

The conservation reserve

Whose land. Any area owned by the Government.

Which land in particular. Areas adjacent to National Parks and sanctuaries, and areas which link one protected area with another.

Read that second phrase. It is the statutory recognition of the corridor. A species that cannot move between two protected areas is a species in two isolated populations, and the conservation reserve is the Act's answer.

For what. Protecting landscapes, seascapes, flora and fauna and their habitat. Note that landscapes and seascapes are objects of protection in their own right, which no other declaration in the Act says.

What must precede it. Consultations with the local communities. Consultation, not consent.

The proviso. Where the reserve includes land owned by the Central Government, its prior concurrence must be obtained.

What applies inside. Section 36A(2) applies, as far as may be: section 18(2) on specifying the limits; sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of section 27, being the duties of a resident, the boundary mark provision and the prohibition on teasing and littering; section 30 on fire; section 32 on injurious substances; and clauses (b) and (c) of section 33, the duty to ensure the security of wild animals and the preservation of the reserve, and the power to take measures for the improvement of habitat.