Rajasthan’s first biosphere reserve will soon be announced. It will be located at Desert National Park and would cover nearby areas of Jaisalmer district. This step is being taken under guidance of Unesco and its Man and Biosphere Programme. Yesterday on 29th August a meeting regarding this matter was held by Union Forest and Environment Ministry at Jodhpore.

A biosphere reserve is just an extended version of wildlife conservation which includes at least one national park and the buffer zones around it.

The reserve being made will cover an entire stretch of 6,000 sq km. Once it is constructed, two confirm benefits will fall into place. Firstly, the tourist density will increase in and around this area. Secondly, Unesco and its international level funding will find and increase for Rajasthan’s wildlife conservation.

Up till now, there are a total number of 18 biosphere reserves that have been declared by Unesco to be made in India. Some of the areas are Western Ghats, Nand Devi, Gulf of Mannar, Neelgiri, Kanjiranga and Panchmarhi. Among the rest of them, latest biosphere reserve in India was declared in Panna sanctuary in the month of August, 2011. So we can see that after a long gap of 5 years, a new biosphere reserve will be declared and it will be hosted by country’s largest state.

Anoop K R, the deputy conservator of forest at Desert National Park said, “The process of declaring DNP in Jaisalmer and around 6000 sq. km. area associated with DNP as biosphere reserve is in final stage. To make it a biosphere reserve, the proposal was sent before to union forest and environment ministry in 2006. The process is underway since then.”

So in simple terms, a green signal has been given and this is what was discussed during the meeting held among the special committee made by the ministry.