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9 Jul 2026ENVIRONMENT3 questions

A Sanctuary on Paper: Behali and the Cost of Delayed Protection

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Article summary

Behali Wildlife Sanctuary, a patch of biodiversity-rich semi-evergreen forest in Assam's Biswanath (Sonitpur) district at the foothills of the Eastern Himalaya, is facing serious illegal encroachment, large-scale tree-felling and even firing on forest personnel. The forest functions as an important corridor for elephant movement between protected areas, lying between Nameri National Park to its west and toward Kaziranga to its south, and is part of the Sonitpur Elephant Reserve; it hosts species including the Asian elephant, tiger, Bengal slow loris, white-winged wood duck and Chinese pangolin, and is designated an Important Bird Area. Critically, though a preliminary notification to upgrade Behali to a wildlife sanctuary was issued years ago, the final notification has still not been declared, and the reserve has shrunk from an original 140 sq km to about 80 sq km. For UPSC, Behali is a sharp illustration of how weak forest governance, delayed legal protection and encroachment combine to erode biodiversity and wildlife corridors.

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recallTests whether you read the article and retained key facts.
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applicationTests whether you can apply the concept to a new scenario.
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analysisTests whether you can reason across multiple related facts.
1Q

Sample questions — answers revealed after test

ENVIRONMENTRecallEasy

Q1. With reference to the declaration of a wildlife sanctuary under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which one of the following statements is correct?

AA single notification by the State government is sufficient, no settlement of rights being required.
BA preliminary notification confers the full legal protection of a sanctuary, the final notification being a formality without legal effect.
CDeclaration requires prior approval of the National Board for Wildlife and a resolution of Parliament.
DThe process involves a notification of intent, settlement of rights, and a final notification, so that delay at any stage weakens enforcement on the ground.
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ENVIRONMENTApplicationMedium

Q2. Behali functions as an elephant corridor between Nameri and the wider Kaziranga landscape. Which one of the following best explains why the loss of such a corridor matters even where the habitats it connects remain protected?

ACorridors hold higher biodiversity than the protected areas they connect, so their loss removes the richest habitat in the landscape.
BA severed corridor isolates populations, restricting gene flow between them, and forces elephants to move through human-dominated land instead — which increases human-elephant conflict.
CCorridors are legally protected to a higher standard than sanctuaries, so their loss represents a greater legal failure.
DElephants do not use protected areas at all, depending exclusively on corridors for habitat.
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ENVIRONMENTAnalysisHard

Q3. Consider the following statements regarding Behali: 1. It is a semi-evergreen forest in Assam's Biswanath and Sonitpur landscape, forming part of the Sonitpur Elephant Reserve. 2. Its recorded fauna includes the Asian elephant, tiger, Bengal slow loris, white-winged wood duck and Chinese pangolin, and it has been designated an Important Bird Area. 3. Its final notification as a wildlife sanctuary was completed, and the subsequent forest loss occurred despite full statutory protection being in force. Which of the statements given above are correct?

A1 only
B1 and 2 only
C2 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3
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