History : Peep into the Past

In the year 1982	In the year 2002

About two decades back, major portion of the area was under the control of revenue department whereas a few portions were personal property of few owners of private agricultural land of Prempura, Dharampuri and Amkheda villages.

The entire area was prone to severe encroachments. A number of illegal stone quarries were operational in the area and being in the serene and beautiful location on the bank of big lake, many commercial organizations were trying to grab this valuable piece of land.

Looking to all above problems and realizing importance of both in-situ and ex-situ conservation of wild fauna, it was decided to provide this area a legal umbrella under the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972. A committee of experts was constituted to decide the modalities for constitution of this area as a Protected Area. An area of 445.21 hectare was notified as National Park in the year 1983 as per the committee's recommendation.

Out of the 445.21 hectares of land, 388.39 hectare was government revenue land and rest of the 56.92 hectare belonged to the villagers of Prempura, Dharampuri and Amkheda. A compensation of Rs. 23.52 lakhs was paid to villagers to acquire 56.92 hectares of private holdings.

After the constitution of National Park, such acquired area was enclosed in succession with stonewall and chain link fence. Efforts of protection and habitat improvement measures resulted in its enrichment in a very short period of time.