A visitor who finds three different areas quoted for the same park — 820.42 km², 819.54 km² and 1,075.17 km² — usually concludes that one of them is a typo. None of them is. Each belongs to a different instrument, a different date and a different legal object: the first is the area the state set out to constitute as a national park in 1983, the second is the area finally notified as the national park in 2013, and the third is the whole tiger reserve declared in 2015. This page sets out what each figure measures, what is legally inside Rajaji, and where the official arithmetic stops working.
Sources checked on 1 November 2026: the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s copy of the 2015 tiger reserve declaration; the Central Government’s 2018 eco-sensitive zone gazette, which recites the 1983, 2013 and 2015 notifications; the reserve’s own About page together with its archived copy of 23 February 2024; the NTCA Annual Report 2023-24 and Annual Report 2024-25; and the Rajaji National Park Management Plan, cited as a document because no stable public copy of it was located on 1 November 2026.
820.42 km²: the 1983 intention
The first number comes from an intent notification rather than a final boundary. Uttar Pradesh Government notification No. 5440/XIV-3-84/76 dated 12 August 1983 is the step that announced the intention to constitute the national park after merging the Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla wildlife sanctuaries. The Rajaji National Park Management Plan describes that step as the intention to constitute 820.42 km² as the national park, and the reserve’s own About page still prints the figure as the park’s area: “In 1983 the intent notification of Rajaji National Park was issued … Rajaji National Park is spread over an area of 820.42 sq km.”
An intent notification fixes an intention. It does not fix the final legal boundary, which is why 820.42 survives in prose, in older pages and on the official site while the notified boundary later settled at a different number.
819.54 km²: the 2013 final notification
The national park was finally notified by Uttarakhand Government notification No. 3807/X-2-2013-19(7)2002 dated 14 September 2013, with an area of 819.54 km². That declaration was issued under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 — the provision under which a state government publishes the final notification of a national park, section 35(4). The 2018 eco-sensitive zone gazette recites the same notification number and date, and gives the park’s spread as 819.54 sq km, which is why that recital is used here as the second witness for the figure.
One limit should be stated plainly: the 2013 gazette text was not located online on 1 November 2026. The figures on this page therefore rest on the 2015 tiger reserve notification’s own table and on the 2018 gazette’s recital, and nothing here claims more than those two documents support.
1,075.17 km²: the 2015 tiger reserve
Rajaji was declared a tiger reserve by notification No. 130/X-2-2015-19(1)2013 dated 18 April 2015, issued under section 38V(1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives a total area of 1,075.17 km² divided as follows:
- Core: 819.54 km². The notification says the core “comprises the whole of” Rajaji National Park, so the core zone and the park are the same ground.
- Buffer: 255.63 km² of reserve forest, in four components — Laldhang (7,925.90 ha), Kotdwar (8,189.20 ha), Shyampur (7,409.19 ha) and Bijni Beat (2,038.30 ha).
The four components add to 25,562.59 hectares, which is 255.63 km² once converted, and 819.54 plus 255.63 gives exactly the 1,075.17 printed in the notification. The document is also the reason the buffer can be described without guesswork: it names the reserve forests, and the 2018 gazette recital names the same blocks — Bijni Beat under the park’s administrative control, part of Shyampur Range of Haridwar Forest Division, and the Laldhang and Kotdwar ranges of Lansdowne Forest Division.
Why the About page’s addition does not add up
The reserve’s About page tells the story in a single sentence: the park is 820.42 sq km, in 2015 “255.63 sq km area of adjacent reserve forest was added”, and “whole area of 1075 sq km was declared as Rajaji Tiger Reserve”. The addition the sentence implies does not work: 820.42 + 255.63 = 1,076.05, not 1,075. The pairing that works uses the 2013 notified park, 819.54 + 255.63 = 1,075.17. In other words the sentence mixes the 1983 intent figure with the 2015 buffer figure while printing a total that belongs to the 2013 boundary. The wording is identical in the archived copy of the About page from 23 February 2024, so it is a long-standing slip rather than a recent edit, and it was still uncorrected when checked on 1 November 2026.
What the national reports print
The NTCA’s Annual Report 2023-24 lists Rajaji in its tiger reserve table with a notification year of 2015 and the areas 819.54, 255.63 and 1,075.17 — the same three numbers used on this page. The Annual Report 2024-25 prints a dash in that notification-year column for Rajaji — and for roughly thirty other reserves in the same column, from Anamalai and Mudumalai to Pilibhit and Orang. A dash that appears against most of the table is a defect of the table, not a statement about any one reserve, so this page does not read it as evidence that Rajaji lacks a notification, and it does not say that Rajaji has no notified core or buffer. Both reports print the core and buffer areas for Rajaji.
What is legally inside Rajaji
Two instruments create two legal objects. The national park exists through the 2013 declaration under section 35(4) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; the tiger reserve exists through the 2015 declaration under section 38V(1) of the same Act. Inside the tiger reserve, the core zone is the national park itself and the buffer is reserve forest — different ground, notified as part of the tiger reserve rather than as national park. That is the whole legal frame the documents support: nothing here extends the park beyond 819.54 km², and nothing here converts buffer reserve forest into park land.
What this means on safari morning
None of the above changes what a permit does. The zones named on a booking are visitor-facing units, not a map of the legal core and buffer: a permit is sold for a named zone at a named gate, and the zone list on the portal is not the boundary language of a notification. For the gate-by-gate picture, read the safari gates and zones guide; for tariff, season and permit flow, entry fees, timings and permits; and for the difference between the park and the wider tiger reserve, national park vs tiger reserve. This page does not reopen the naming question beyond stating which document says which number — the map and ranges guide and the history and geography guide carry the layout and the story.
Where to read next
Two companions sit beside this one: the official elephant census series, which sets out what the counting records actually say about Rajaji’s elephants, and Asan Conservation Reserve, Uttarakhand’s first Ramsar site, which lies outside Rajaji altogether. For the 10 km band around the park, the stone crusher and eco-sensitive zone record follows the siting dispute through the court documents. Sources checked 1 November 2026.
Rajaji's legal boundary: questions answered
Why do 820.42, 819.54 and 1,075.17 km² all appear for Rajaji?
Because each measures a different thing on a different date. 820.42 km² is the area set out by the 1983 intent notification No. 5440/XIV-3-84/76 of 12 August 1983 — the intention to constitute that area as a national park. 819.54 km² is the area finally notified as the national park on 14 September 2013. 1,075.17 km² is the whole tiger reserve declared on 18 April 2015, core plus buffer. The 2015 declaration prints the 819.54, 255.63 and 1,075.17 figures; the 820.42 figure comes from the 1983 intent notification and the About page: https://ntca.gov.in/assets/uploads/notification/tigerreserve/Rajaji.pdf
Which figure is the legal area of the national park?
819.54 km², from the final national park notification No. 3807/X-2-2013-19(7)2002 dated 14 September 2013, issued under section 35(4) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The 2013 gazette text was not located online on 1 November 2026, so this figure rests on the 2015 notification table and the 2018 eco-sensitive zone gazette recital: https://moef.gov.in/uploads/2019/10/rajaji-1.pdf
What does the 2015 tiger reserve declaration include?
A total of 1,075.17 km² under notification No. 130/X-2-2015-19(1)2013 dated 18 April 2015: a core zone of 819.54 km² that the notification says comprises the whole of the national park, and a buffer of 255.63 km² of reserve forest in four components — Laldhang 7,925.90 ha, Kotdwar 8,189.20 ha, Shyampur 7,409.19 ha and Bijni Beat 2,038.30 ha. Declaration: https://ntca.gov.in/assets/uploads/notification/tigerreserve/Rajaji.pdf
Does the official About page’s addition add up?
No. The page gives the park as 820.42 sq km, adds 255.63 sq km of buffer and then states 1075 sq km, but 820.42 + 255.63 is 1,076.05. The total that works uses the 2013 notified park: 819.54 + 255.63 = 1,075.17. The wording is unchanged in the archived copy of 23 February 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240223205940/https://rajajitigerreserve.uk.gov.in/About.aspx
Are safari permit zones the same as the legal core and buffer?
No. The core and buffer are legal descriptions — the core is the 819.54 km² national park, the buffer is 255.63 km² of reserve forest — while safari zones are visitor-facing units sold at named gates. A permit names a zone; it does not certify which legal zone you drove through. Zone list and permit flow: https://rajajitigerreserve.uk.gov.in/jungle-safari-booking.aspx