Wildlife, sanctuaries and biodiversity of Rajasthan

At a glance

1. 1Count by date: the numbers change with every notification; RAS 2024 asked a conservation reserve 'as on May 2023'.
2. 2Baran, not Bundi: Shergarh Sanctuary and the three Sorsan conservation reserves are in Baran; RAS 2023 and RAS 2024 both offered them with Bundi.
3. 3Tiger reserves come as current affairs: RAS 2023 asked Rajasthan's fifth.
4. 4Symbols are asked directly: CET Graduation 2024 asked the state bird, REET 2025 the state flower.

Protected areas at a glance

Counts are from the Rajasthan Forest Department's list of protected areas as of 20 October 2026, and for Ramsar sites from the Environment Ministry's list as of 21 April 2026 (no Rajasthan site has been added since, up to 20 October 2026). They change with every new notification: when a question gives an 'as on' date, answer for that date.

Tiger reserves

Rajasthan has five tiger reserves; the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) lists 58 in India as of 20 October 2026. Project Tiger began in 1973 with nine reserves in nine states, Rajasthan among them; Ranthambore is the Rajasthan reserve whose NTCA entry goes back to 1973–74.

The year is NTCA's 'TR notification year'; in brackets is the earlier 'PA notification year' that NTCA's table gives for Ranthambore and Sariska. The two sources' areas differ for Ranthambore and Mukundra Hills, where the department's figure is larger than NTCA's core plus buffer, and for Dholpur–Karauli, where it equals NTCA's core alone.

National parks

• Keoladeo was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Wildlife sanctuaries

The Forest Department lists 26 sanctuaries; the year is that of the first notification. Seven of them (Jaisamand, Sawai Madhopur, Sariska, Darrah, and Ramsagar, Van Vihar and Kesarbagh in Dholpur) were first declared together as 'reserved areas' on 7 November 1955. Mount Abu was first declared in 1960 and notified again with its boundaries in 2008. Main wildlife is as listed by the State Biodiversity Board. Eight proposals, among them national parks for Desert, Sariska and Kumbhalgarh, are 'under process' and are not counted.

Conservation reserves

Forty reserves are listed, with the date of each notification. Districts are today's, from the tehsils in each reserve's notification: the department's table still names districts cancelled in December 2024 (Kekri for Bisalpur and Kharmor, Neem ka Thana for the Khetri, Mansa Mata, Shakambhari and Baleshwar reserves, Sanchore for Rankhar, Shahpura for Beed Ghaas Fuliya Khurd).

Ramsar wetlands

Rajasthan has five Ramsar sites as of 21 April 2026, three of them designated in 2025. The dates below are the Ramsar designation dates; the Environment Ministry's list gives a later date of declaration in India: 1982 for Keoladeo, 1990 for Sambhar, 4 June 2025 for Menar and Khichan, and 12 December 2025 for Siliserh. Sambhar Lake and its district are on the Lakes page.

State symbols

The godawan, chinkara, rohida and khejri were declared by notifications of the Revenue (Group-8) Department of the Government of Rajasthan; the Godawan's notification adds that the bird is fully protected under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The camel was declared a state animal in 2014; its slaughter is banned by the Rajasthan Camel Act (Act No. 2 of 2016, see the Livestock notes).

• Khejri: the Bishnoi community honours and worships the tree. In 1730, at Khejarli village about 26 km south-east of Jodhpur, Amrita Devi and her three daughters gave their lives to save khejri trees from being cut; Khejadli Kala conservation reserve (Jodhpur) was notified in 2025.

Great Indian Bustard and other species

• Project Great Indian Bustard was launched by the Chief Minister on 5 June 2013, starting in Desert National Park Sanctuary, Jaisalmer; Rajasthan was the first state to launch such a project.
• Numbers: more than 1,000 a few decades before the project, 745 in 1978, 600 in 2001, 300 in 2008 and not more than 125 in 2013; a 2018 survey estimated 128 ± 19 in Rajasthan. Rajasthan holds more than half of the world's Godawans.
• Conservation breeding: under a 2018 agreement of the Environment Ministry, the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India, a centre at Sam, Jaisalmer (from June 2019) hatches eggs collected in the wild, and a long-term centre at Ramdevra has worked since August 2022. The world's first Godawan chick bred in captivity hatched at Sam in March 2023. Breeding of the lesser florican (kharmor) began in 2020 at a temporary centre at Bijainagar (then Ajmer district, now Beawar).
• Desert National Park Sanctuary: the Godawan is its flagship species; the Houbara bustard (locally tilor) winters there.
• Reserves named for a species: Baghdarrah Crocodile, Mahseer, Amrakh Mahadev Leopard, Jawai Bandh Leopard II and Kharmor. The National Chambal Sanctuary is listed by the department as the National Gharial Sanctuary.

Law and conservation programmes

• Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002 (Act 16 of 2003, 17 January 2003) added two kinds of area: conservation reserves (declared by the state government on government land, particularly next to national parks and sanctuaries or linking them) and community reserves (on private or community land).
• Rajasthan Forestry and Biodiversity Project (Phase 2), assisted by JICA: see the Forests notes.
• Outside notified areas: nearly half of the state's wildlife species are found outside the protected-area network; local people and gram panchayats look after many such sites, and the Bishnoi community's role stands out.

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