Prelims 2023 · Q38
HardConsider the following statements:
Once the Central Government notifies an area as a ‘Community Reserve’
- 1.the Chief Wildlife Warden of the State becomes the governing authority of such forest
- 2.hunting is not allowed in such area
- 3.people of such area are allowed to collect non-timber forest produce
- 4.people of such area are allowed traditional agricultural practices
How many of the above statements are correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) Only two
Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (b): statements 2 and 3 are correct, 1 and 4 are not. The Act settles 1 (a Community Reserve management committee, not the Chief Wild Life Warden, manages the reserve) and supports 2 (the general ban on hunting applies, and the sanctuary duty to secure wild animals is extended to community reserves). On 3 and 4 the Act grants no positive rights: it does not extend the sanctuary bar on removing forest produce (section 29) to community reserves, so collection of non-timber produce continues, but it freezes the land-use pattern (section 36C(3)), which rules out opening reserve land to cultivation — forest officials in Nagaland describe community reserves as areas where people can neither hunt nor farm, 'leave alone jhum cultivation'. A looser reading that treats settled farming as unchanged land use would give three, but the key does not take it; and the stem's 'Central Government notifies' is loose (the State Government declares a community reserve) without changing the count. In the exam, read the land-use freeze as excluding agriculture.
A Community Reserve is declared by the State Government on private or community land whose owners volunteer to conserve wildlife, and it is run by a Community Reserve management committee, so statement 1 is wrong. Hunting stays banned (2) and the Act does not bar the collection of forest produce there (3), but the land-use pattern is frozen, so reserve land cannot be turned over to cultivation (4): two statements are correct.
- ✗ 1. Section 36D of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 makes the Community Reserve management committee, constituted by the State Government, the authority for conserving, maintaining and managing the reserve. The Chief Wild Life Warden controls sanctuaries, not community reserves.
- ✓ 2. Hunting of protected wild animals is banned by section 9 everywhere, and section 36C(2) extends to a community reserve the sanctuary duty under section 33(b) to ensure the security of wild animals.
- ✓ 3. The Act applies only selected sanctuary provisions to a community reserve — sections 18(2), 27(2) to (4), 30, 32 and 33(b) and (c). The sanctuary bar on removing forest produce (section 29) is not among them, so the community's collection of non-timber produce on its own land continues under the management committee.
- ✗ 4. Section 36C(3) freezes the land-use pattern after notification: no change is allowed without a resolution of the management committee and State Government approval, so reserve land cannot be opened to cultivation. In Nagaland, which has the most community reserves, forest officials describe them as areas where people can neither hunt nor farm, leave alone practise jhum.
Remember · Community Reserve (Wild Life (Protection) Act, s. 36C-36D, added 2002): private or community land, declared by the State Government, managed by a Community Reserve management committee; hunting banned, land-use pattern frozen, forest-produce collection not barred.
Sources
- Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, section 36C (India Code) ↗ “The State Government may, where the community or an individual has volunteered to conserve wild life and its habitat, declare any private or community land not comprised within a National Park, sanctuary or a conservation reserve, as a community reserve … The State Government shall constitute a Community Reserve management committee, which shall be the authority responsible for conserving, maintaining and managing the community reserve. … no change in the land use pattern shall be made within the community reserve, except in accordance with a resolution passed by the management committee and approval of the same by the State Government. … The provisions of sub-section (2) of section 18, sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of section 27, sections 30, 32 and clauses (b) and (c) of section 33 shall, as far as may be, apply in relation to a community reserve as they apply in relation to a sanctuary.”
- Down To Earth: Community reserves — are they forest department's backdoor entry into North East India (quoting an assistant conservator of forests, Nagaland) ↗ · reference work “After a forest has been made into a community reserve, people cannot hunt there, nor can they use it for agricultural practices, leave alone jhum cultivation”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·