Context

• The Maharashtra government declared the Tillari forest area in the Dodamarg and Sawantwadi range in coastal Sindhudurg district as a conservation reserve area.

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• Maharashtra has 62 conservation reserves, of which 13 are in the western ghats.
• Tillari reserve has semi-evergreen forest, tropical moist deciduous forests, and a number of unique trees, butterflies, and flowers.
• Tillari conservation reserve is located near the border of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, connecting Mhadei sanctuary in Goa and Bhimgad in Karnataka.
• The 38-km-long Dodamarg wildlife corridor that connects Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra to Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka frequently witnesses elephant and tiger movement.

Conservation reserve

• The reserve denotes protected areas which typically act as buffer zones to or connectors and migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved and protected forests.
• 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 if part 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.