The Central Empowered Committee has approved the final notification by which the Uttarakhand Government had declared 600 sq kms area of reserved forest, civil and Van Panchayat, and some uncategorised areas to be Askot wildlife sanctuary.
This was confirmed by the Uttarakhand chief wildlife warden SS Sharma.
CM Vijay Bahuguna had recently excluded 111 villages covering about 32,000 hectares from the scope of this wildlife sanctuary to facilitate development in border areas of Dharchula. The Askot sanctuary area is known to host rich wildlife, including musk deer, leopard, serow and Himalayan brown bear, among other wildlife species.