Kerala's eighteen wildlife sanctuaries cover 2,156.21 sq km, the Forest Department records

Background

The Kerala Forest Department lists 18 wildlife sanctuaries in the state, covering 2156.21 sq km. The oldest on the list is the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, 777.000 sq km, with a year of formation of 1950. The most recent is the Karimpuzha Wildlife Sanctuary, 227.970 sq km, formed in 2019. The largest after Periyar is the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary at 344.440 sq km, and the smallest is the Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary at 0.027 sq km. Four sanctuaries on the list were formed in a single year, 1984: Shendurney, Chinnar, Chimmony and Aralam. The department notes that India has 573 wildlife sanctuaries spanning 123,762.56 sq km as of November 2023, which is 3.76 per cent of the country's geographical area.