Maharashtra board upgrades Kolamarka to sanctuary and adds dozens of new reserves

Maharashtra’s wildlife board has granted sanctuary status to the Kolamarka Conservation Reserve in Gadchiroli, a key habitat for wild buffaloes, as part of a broader set of approvals announced on Oct 26, 2026.

Sanctuaries and Reserves

The board also approved the expansion of Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary and its formal declaration as a sanctuary. Fourteen new conservation reserves were cleared across seven districts: Velhe‑Mulshi (Pune‑Raigad), Bhor Girgad (Pune), Dindori, Surgana and Taharabad (Nashik), Chinchpada (Nandurbar), Alibag and Ghera Manikgad (Raigad), Lonavala (Pune‑Raigad), Ghumtara (Thane), Jawhar, Asherigad and Dhamani (Palghar), and Ekara (Chandrapur). In the Tansa expansion, 588.767 hectares of revenue and privately‑owned land from the villages of Ogda, Khodde, Tirmal, Pachghar, Phansad and Amle will be incorporated to remove human settlement from the core area. The board further labeled 100.139 sq km of Koka Wildlife Sanctuary and 255.79 sq km of Jayakwadi Bird Sanctuary as critical wildlife habitats.

Management and Infrastructure

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis instructed officials to fold routine tasks such as dam repairs, rehabilitation and desilting into sanctuary management plans, with revised procedures to be issued within three months. He called for a single notification system that alerts wildlife officials before any such work begins, replacing the need for separate approvals each time. Infrastructure proposals covering irrigation, health facilities, water supply, bridges, roads, underground fibre cables and power lines in protected zones, eco‑sensitive areas and tiger corridors also received clearance. The board discussed designating core, buffer and notified eco‑sensitive zones of the state’s six tiger reserves as silence zones, classifying human‑wildlife conflict as a natural disaster, and drafting a relocation policy for villages willing to move from tiger‑reserve buffers. Fadnavis asked for a review of the Disaster Management Act, compensation rules and forest‑department powers before any step proceeds, and ordered a one‑month study on staffing needs in existing sanctuaries. Forest Minister Ganesh Naik joined the meeting virtually.

Context

Sanctuary and reserve designations are a key tool Maharashtra uses to protect biodiversity, reduce human‑wildlife clashes and preserve large tracts of forest from development pressures.