Context: Recently, the thick forests of Tillari in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg, home to tigers, leopards, elephants and many other animals, is now accorded the status of a ‘conservation reserve’.
Key Points

• Tillari will be the seventh corridor in the state to be declared as a conservation reserve. Other are Anjneri, Bhorkada, Kolamarka, Mamdapur, Muktai Bhavani and Toranmal Conservation reserve.
• The area covering nine villages in the forest range is known to serve as a corridor and even as a habitat for the population of tigers and elephants moving between the three states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
• Located in the Dogamark tehsil of Sindhudurg district, Tillari connects the Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary in Kolhapur with Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Belgaum, Karnataka.
• Tillari has a breeding population of tigers and is a crucial corridor for the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and Radhanagari, besides elephants which move here from Kanataka’s Anshi National Park, known as the Kali Tiger Reserve,
• In addition to elephants and the big cats, Tillari also houses a wide variety of deers, antelopes, bison, monkeys, wild boars, rich flora with several species of reptiles, birds and insects, many endemic to this region.

About Conservation Reserves & Community Reserves

• Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves in India are terms denoting protected areas of India which typically act as buffer zones to or connectors and migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved and protected forests of India.
• Such areas are designated as conservation areas if they are uninhabited and completely owned by the Government of India but used for subsistence by communities and community areas if parts of the lands are privately owned.
• These protected area categories were first introduced in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 the amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
• These categories were added because of reduced protection in and around existing or proposed protected areas due to private ownership of land, and land use.