Wildlife Sanctuaries Spotlight
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The book's title notwithstanding, most revision material (including the sections above) skews toward National Parks simply because they draw more tourist and exam attention — but Wildlife Sanctuaries outnumber National Parks more than five to one, and a steady stream of exam questions target sanctuary-specific facts, especially ones tied to a single headline species or a well-known former/pending status change. The following are the sanctuaries most likely to appear:
| Sanctuary | State | Headline Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Keoladeo Ghana | Rajasthan | Originally a Wildlife Sanctuary (declared 1956) built around a former royal duck-hunting reserve; upgraded to National Park in 1982 — one of the world's most important bird breeding and wintering areas |
| Wild Ass Sanctuary, Little Rann of Kutch | Gujarat | Only home of the Indian wild ass (khur), a subspecies found nowhere else |
| Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary (Nannaj) | Maharashtra | Key remaining Great Indian Bustard habitat in the Deccan |
| Karera Bustard Sanctuary | Madhya Pradesh | Once a flagship bustard sanctuary; effectively denotified after bustards disappeared locally — a cited cautionary tale in PA-management debates |
| Chinnar | Kerala | Rain-shadow scrub forest; grizzled giant squirrel |
| Point Calimere (Vedaranyam) | Tamil Nadu | Major wintering ground for flamingos and migratory shorebirds; blackbuck |
| Vedanthangal | Tamil Nadu | One of India's oldest bird sanctuaries; heronry (painted stork, cormorant) |
| Pakhal | Telangana | Lake-based sanctuary near Warangal |
| Koundinya | Andhra Pradesh | Elephant sanctuary in the Eastern Ghats |
| Neyyar | Kerala | Lion-tailed macaque and crocodile (rehabilitation) reserve |
| Chilika (Nalabana bird sanctuary) | Odisha | Set within Asia's largest brackish-water lagoon; Irrawaddy dolphin, migratory waterfowl |
| Nal Sarovar | Gujarat | Major wetland bird sanctuary, especially flamingos and pelicans |
| Bharatpur | See Keoladeo above | — |
| Sultanpur | Haryana | Small but heavily birded wetland sanctuary near Delhi/Gurugram |
| Melghat | Maharashtra | One of the original nine Project Tiger reserves (1973), inside a wildlife sanctuary/tiger reserve combination |
| Nalabana | Odisha | Bird sanctuary island inside Chilika Lake |
| Sajjangarh | Rajasthan | Small sanctuary around a hilltop ("Monsoon Palace") near Udaipur |
| Ranebennur | Karnataka | Blackbuck sanctuary, also historic lion-safari/introduced-cheetah discussions |
| Rollapadu | Andhra Pradesh | Great Indian Bustard and blackbuck grassland sanctuary |
| Gautala Autramghat | Maharashtra | Deccan plateau sanctuary near Ajanta |
Two sanctuaries are worth remembering specifically for their "before" story, since "which park used to be a sanctuary/hunting reserve" is a recurring question type: Keoladeo Ghana began as a duck-shooting reserve maintained for the Bharatpur royal family (shoots continued even after independence, into the 1960s, before phased protection) — one of the most-cited examples of a colonial/princely hunting ground converting fully into a globally significant conservation site. Karera, conversely, is cited as a cautionary example: declared specifically to protect the Great Indian Bustard, it lost its bustard population to habitat degradation and was effectively wound down — a reminder that sanctuary status alone does not guarantee a species' survival without sustained habitat management.
Memory hook: "Little Rann's wild ass, Nannaj's bustard, Point Calimere's flamingo, Vedanthangal's stork." Four sanctuaries, four headline species, one state each (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu) — chain them as a single mental image of a strange four-animal parade.
Memory hook (the two bustard "before" stories): "Nannaj still has its bustard; Karera lost it." Pair the survivor with the cautionary tale so you never mix up which one is the success case.
Memory hook (Kerala's rehab pair): "Chinnar's squirrel and Neyyar's macaque both got a second chance" — Chinnar (grizzled giant squirrel, scrub forest) and Neyyar (lion-tailed macaque and crocodile rehabilitation), Kerala's two sanctuary entries here.
Practice Recall: Before reading on, name the sanctuary that is the sole home of the Indian wild ass, and the state it's in.
Answer: Wild Ass Sanctuary, Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat.