Biosphere reserves are multipurpose protected areas, which are meant for preserving genetic diversity in representative ecosystems of various natural biomes and unique biological communities by protecting wild populations, traditional lifestyle of tribals and domesticated plant and animal genetic resources.
Each biosphere reserve has:
(i) Core area, where no human activity is allowed.
(ii) Buffer zone is managed to accommodate a variety of resource use.
(iii) Transitional zone, where human activities like settlement, cropping, recreation, forestry are allowed.
Man and biosphere programme is an international biological programme of UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization), which was started in 1971 but was introduced in India in 1986.