Private protected areas of India

Private protected areas of India refer to protected areas inside India whose land rights are owned by an individual or a corporation / organization, and where the habitat and resident species are offered some kind of protection from exploitative activities like hunting, logging, etc. The Government of India did not provide any legal or physical protection to such entities, but in an important amendment introduced by the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002, has agreed to protect communally owned areas of ecological value.

In pre-British India, and erstwhile British India and associated suzerainties, large tracts of wilderness were under private ownership, typically under the ownership of the royal families of the suzerainties. Animals and habitat in these tracts were protected by royal decree and royal forces. Later, after the advent of the British, these lands were protected by personal guards of the royal families.

However, these lands were usually used as hunting grounds for the maharajahs and other noble families, so while the animals and habitat were accorded protection from external entities, hunting for sport by the owners of the land was commonly practised. Even so, some of such hunting was done on a sustainable basis, and some wildlife like the Asiatic cheetah were trained to hunt in such hunting grounds.

After independence, the political integration of India caused most of the royal families to lose their ownership rights to these lands, and these were converted into reserved forests, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Some of India's most famous protected areas had their origins in privately owned protected lands. Some of these are listed below.

Among the other former hunting grounds of the Nizam of Hyderabad (once one of the richest persons in the world) are the Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Wildlife Sanctuary. Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary was also privately owned by the Maharaja of Mysore before he was persuaded by Salim Ali to declare it a wildlife sanctuary in 1940.

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