Biosphere reserves, National Park and wild life sanctuaries are all protected areas but differ from each other in some ways.
National parks are reserved for betterment of wild life. Cultivation, grazing forestry and habitat manipulations are not allowed.
Sanctuaries are tracts of land with or with out lake where wild life can take refuge without being hunted. Harvesting of timber, collection of forest products, tilling of land, private ownership of land etc., are allowed. Biosphere reserves are multipurpose protected area which are meant for preserving genetic diversity in representative ecosystems of various national biomass and unique biological communities by protecting wild life, traditional life style of tribals and domesticated plant/animal genetic resources.
Each biosphere reserve has 3 zones - (i) core or natural zone - where no human activity is allowed, (ii) Buffer zone - limited human activity is allowed like education and research (iii) Transition zone - It is the outer most zone where an active cooperation is present between reserve management and local people for activities like agriculture, tourism and forestry.