Shimla: The proposal to rationalise wildlife sanctuaries in the state cleared the main hurdle with national board of wildlife granting approval with certain important modifications, including setting up of conservation reserves in place of scrapping sanctuaries altogether. The approval has been granted on the basis of the report of two-member committee comprising director of the Wild Life Institute of India and well-known expert in the field Dr N.K.Ranjit Singh, the panel deputed by the board for a final appraisal of the proposal which visited the state in April last for inspection of the sanctuaries proposed to be scrapped. The report will now be submitted to the Supreme Court for the final nod. After rationalisation all but 26 out of the total 793 villages currently under protected wildlife area will be excluded. While the proposal to de-notify the Gobind Sagar water body was approved as it is, only the temple and the main roads leading to it were allowed to be excluded from the Naina Devi sanctuary. The truncated protected area will be converted into a conservation reserve. Similarly, a part of the Daralghat sanctuary will be retained as a conservation reserve. In case of Noargu sanctuary in Mandi the thickly populated villages will be taken out and forest areas of adjoining Kullu included to make it a viable wild life protected area. Besides, boundaries of 20 other sanctuaries will be redrawn to exclude human habitations. The overall protected wildlife areas will increase as forests rich in wildlife which were left out, will now be made part of the sanctuaries. The largest area of about 850 sq km is to be included in the Kibber sanctuary in the cold desert of Spiti. At present the state has 33 wildlife sanctuaries and two national parks and the total protected area comes to 12.80 per cent of the geographical area. After rationalisation the there will be 31 sanctuaries, four conservation reserves and two national parks.