Biosphere Reserves | Resources | Geography of India

Biosphere Reserves:

The following is a timeline of Biosphere reserves:

• 1971: UNESCO Started Biosphere Reserve Network.
• 1973: MAB( Man and Biosphere program was started by UNESCO)
• 1979: First Biosphere Reserve in the world was established.
• 1986: The First Biosphere of India, Nilgiri was established.
• 2011: Panna Biosphere Reserve was the 18th of India's Biosphere Reserve.
• 2020: Panna Biosphere Reserve was included in MAB.
• 2021: 
• There are 714 Biosphere reserves in the world.
• 18 Biospheres in India
• 12 MAB Biosphere in India

What is the difference between the national park wildlife sanctuary and biosphere reserve?

In area wise:

National park < Wildlife sanctuary < Biosphere reserve

In the biosphere reserve, there can be many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The biosphere reserve is not only used for the protection of fauna and flora but also for tribal peoples.

Zones in the Biosphere reserve

Three types of zones are in the biosphere reserve:

• Core Zone: Most protected
• Buffer Zone: Comparable less protected to the Core zone but high protected than the transitional zone.
• Transition Zone: Lesser protected than Core and buffer zone.

Three major objectives of the Biosphere reserve:

• Conservation
• Development
• Logistic support

Biosphere Reserves in India

As of 2019, There are 18 Biosphere reserves, approximately 101 national parks, and approx. 553 Wildlife sanctuaries. 12( Panna Biosphere Reserve is included in 2020) out of 18 Biosphere reserves are internationally recognized UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserves (MAB).
The following are the 18 Biosphere reserves that are arranged from north to south in India.

Sr no	Name	State	Importance
1	Cold Desert	Himachal Pradesh	Snow Leopards, Pin Valley National Park
2	Nanda Devi (MAB)	Uttarakhand	Sensitive areas Temperate forest, snow leopard, brown and black bear, medicinal plants,
3	Dehand Dibang	Arunachal Pradesh	Dibang Valley, Red, Panda
4	Kanchenjunga (MAB)	Sikkim	Red Panda, Snow Leopards
5	Manas	Assam	Red Panda, Golden Langur
6	Dibru Saikhowa	Assam	Golden Langur
7	Nokrek (MAB)	Meghalaya	Red panda
8	Panna	MP	Tiger, Sloth Bear
9	Kutch	Gujrat	Indian Wild Ass
10	Achanak Amarkantak (MAB)	MP, Chhatisgarh	Maikal Hills, Amarkantak hills,
11	Pachmarhi (MAB)	MP	Flying Squirrel, Tiger
12	Sundarban (MAB)	West Bengal	Royal Bengal Tiger
13	Simlipal (MAB)	Odisha	Wild Elephant
14	Seshachalam	Andhra Pradesh	flowering plant, sandalwood, hill
15	Great Nicobar(MAB)	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Saltwater Crocodile
16	Nil Giri (MAB)	Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka	Nilgiri Tahr, Lion-tailed macaque, Several dry shrubs. Dry and moist deciduous, semi-evergreen forest, wet evergreen forest, evergreen Sholas forest, Grassland, and Swamp. Nilgiri tahr, lion-tailed macaque.
17	Gulf of Mannar (MAB)	Tamil Nadu	21 islands, estuaries, beaches, forests, seagrasses, coral reef, Sea cow, or Dugong
18	Agasthyamalai (MAB)	Kerala, Tamil Nadu	Elephant, Nilgiri Tahr

Try  to solve the following questions:

Give an account of the nature of the biosphere as an ecosystem. (UPSC 2014, 150 words, 10 marks)

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