[1] Located in the Sahyadri Ranges of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, it is part of the ecoregions of North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests[2] and North Western Ghats montane rain forests.

[3] These ranges form a common boundary between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa, and constitute rich evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests.

The reserve spreads over Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary forming the northern portion and Chandoli National Park forming the southern part of the reserve.

Recently reserve is extended towards Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Prior to that, in 2014, scat DNA and model-based predictions were used to estimate that the reserve had 5–8 tigers.