Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary

The Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary is located some 162 km from Pune. The Phansad Wildlife sanctuary is located in Murud and Roha talukas of Raigad District. It is located with the coastal stretch of Arabian sea.

Forests of the Sanctuary were earlier Hunting Reserve of the erstwhile Janjira State and were famous for the wildlife that they sustained. Prior to 1948, this sanctuary was the game sanctuary and well protected by Nawab of Janjira. Due to excessive hunting and other indiscriminate use of the forests now show signs of degradation. Situated on low hills of the Malabar Coast, west of the north Sahyadri with the uniqueness of vegetation normally associated with high altitude and inland areas, it ranks high among biodiversity hotspots of the Western Ghats ecosystem, in terms of number of moist zone species regionally endangered and endemic to the Western Ghat. It was created in 1986 to preserve some of the coastal woodland ecosystem of the Western Ghats and consists of 6979 hectares of forest, grasslands and wetlands.

The forests types in the sanctuary are southern moist bearing forests, southern moist mixed deciduous forests and Riparian fringing forests. The area has more than 700 plants species. The floral diversity is abundant in the sanctuary. The name of Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary is taken from the large number of Garcinia Talbotii trees. There are four main trails through the sanctuary that take in the main waterholes, Gunyacha Maal, Chikhalgaan and Phansadgaan, that are some of the best places to see wildlife. The “Sacred Groves” are located near Supegaon. Pockets of open grassland, called mals, occur throughout the sanctuary.