Nullam dignissim, ante scelerisque the is euismod fermentum odio sem semper the is erat, a feugiat leo urna eget eros. Duis Aenean a imperdiet risus.
Nullam dignissim, ante scelerisque the is euismod fermentum odio sem semper the is erat, a feugiat leo urna eget eros. Duis Aenean a imperdiet risus.
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The Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu is in the South Western Ghats forms part of the interstate Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve. It includes three sanctuaries, viz. Kalakad, Mundanthurai and part of Kanyakumari Sanctuary, with portions of Tirunelveli forest division of the State. As many as fourteen rivers originate from this reserve, which feed numerous tanks in the plains. There are eleven dams in and around the reserve with three hydroelectric power stations. The terrain is undulating with several valleys and porous rocks.
Core/Critical tiger habitat : 895.000 sq.km
Buffer/Peripheral area : 706.542 sq.km
Total : 1601.542 sq.km
Latitudes : Between 8°.25' N and 8°.53'N
Longitudes : Between 77°.10' E and 77°.35' E
The vegetation of the reserve varies from thorny shrub jungle to lush evergreen forests. As many as 448 endemic species of angiosperms have been identified alongwith 161 fern species. The forests are categorized as below:
The faunal diversity is tremendous and around 84 threatened species have been reported (4 critical,24 endangered and 56 vulnerable). Tiger and elephant are the charismatic mammals, besides a large array of co-predators (leopard, small carnivores), ungulates (sambar, spotted deer), birds, reptiles (crocodile) and fishes. In addition to forests, savannah woodlands and grasslands, there are tea and coffee plantations within the reserve. The aquatic habitat includes reservoirs and rivers, which support flora, water birds, amphibians and fishes. The habitat also has old plantations of Teak, Eucalyptus and other miscellaneous species. The Mundanthurai plateau and Nambi Kovil forest areas have been identified as a Medicinal Plant conservation area as well.
The reserve has a comparatively low tiger status and the 2010 country level tiger assessment has estimated around 15-18 tigers. The adjoining forest divisions, viz. Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari,also support resident tigers.
The core area has large number of water bodies (23 sq.km.) and rocky outcrop (20 sq.km.). As many as five hill tribe settlements exist within the habitat (Kani), apart from fourteen enclaves (four religious, nine private and one a revenue village). Day to day protection, monitoring of tiger,reducing biotic disturbance and securing inviolate space for tiger are important thrust areas.
The buffer area is a 5 km. belt of revenue villages and hamlets, extending along the Eastern boundary of the reserve, with areas from adjacent forest divisions of Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari. An area of 706.542 sq.km is covered under this zone. The reserve has considerable human and cattle population owing to the presence of many villages and townships. Hence, there is resources dependency on the forests of the reserve. To relieve the biotic pressure and address the human-wildlife interface, an Eco development project was launched in 1994, which is successfully ongoing and serving as a role model.
The Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, alongwith the Periyar Tiger Reserve of Kerala constitute the southernmost tiger ranges of the Western Ghats in South India. Thus, they are high priority areas for global biodiversity conservation effort. There are two landscapes with protected areas, viz. Periyar (consisting of Periyar Tiger Reserve of Kerala and Srivilliputhur Wildlife Sanctuary of Tamil Nadu) to the North, and Agasthiyarmalai (consisting of Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and Shendurney, Peppara and Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuaries of Kerala) to the South. Once contiguous, they are now separated by the Shencottah gap (450 sq.km.), with a mosaic of degraded forests, plantations and human settlements. The three major linear barriers in this region are National Highways, the Punalur - Shencottah Railway line and 400 KV power line, which inhibit large mammal movement, while serving as focal areas for human activity.The corridor connecting Kalakad and Mundanthurai is known as the "One-mile width Corridor". Running from East to West, this is situated between Manjolai Tea division and Kakkachi Tea division of Bombay Burma Trading Corporation.
Stepping up field protection, day to day monitoring of tigers and wild animals, securing inviolate space for tiger, surveillance over enclaves/estates, Eco development in the buffer and retrofitting measures for heavily used infrastructure within the reserve are thrust areas.
Innovative Eco development in peripheral areas to elicit local support for conservation.
Anamalai Tiger Reserve
Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) is located on the southern side of the South Western Ghat landscape. It is surrounded by Parambikulum Tiger Reserve on the East, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Eravikulum National Park on the South Western side. The reserve is also surrounded by Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur and Marayur reserved forests of Kerala. The Kariyan shola,Grass hills and Manjampatti of Anamalai Tiger Reserve has been identified as a world heritage site by the UNESCO. Anamalai Tiger Reserve was declared as a Tiger reserve in the year 2007. There are two Divisions and six ranges in this Reserve. The ranges found in this reserve include Amaravathi and Udumalpet falling in Thiruppur Division and Pollachi, Ulandy, Valparai and Manamboli in Pollachi Division.
Core/critical tiger Habitat : 958.59 sq km
Buffer/Peripheral Area : 521.28 sq km
Total : 1479.87 sq km
Latitudes : 10O 13.2’ N to 10 O 33.3’N
Longitudes : 76 O 49.3’ E to 77 O 21.4’ E
Around 2500 species of angiosperms are found in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, with several species of Balsam, Crotalaria, Orchids and Kurinchi. The reserve is rich in wild relatives of cultivated species like mango, jackfruit, wild plantain (Musa species), ginger (Zingiber officinale), turmeric (Curcuma longa), pepper (Piper longum), cardamom, solaipuli, nutmeg, cinnamom, amla (Phillanthus emblicus), jasmine (Jasminum species), drumstick, yams, rice, strawberries and wild guava.
The reserve supports several species of endangered wild animals. There are 70 species of fishes, more than 70 species of amphibians, 120 species of reptiles, 300 species of birds and 80 species of mammals. The important mammals include: Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus), Sambar (Rusa unicolor), Spotted deer (Axis axis) Barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac), Mouse deer (Tragulusnigricans), Gaur (Bos garus), Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius), Lion Tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus), Nilgiri langur (Trchypithecus johnii) and Common langur (Semnopithecus entellus). Other common wild animals include: Wild pig (Sus scrofa) and Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus).In general, the wild animals of the reserve include: Jackal (Canis aureus), Wild dog (Cuon alpines),Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis), Tiger (Panthera tigirs), Leopard (Panthera pardus), Jungle cat(Felis chaus), Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), Smooth coated otter (Lutrogaleperspicillata), Small clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea), Nilgiri marten (Martes gwatkinsii), Small Indian civet (Viverricula indica), common Palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphrodites), Brown palm civet (Paradoxurus jerdoni), Grey mangoose (Herpestes edwardsii), Ruddy mangoose (Herpestessmithii), Indian Brown mangoose (Herpestes fuscus), Stripe-necked mangoose (Herpestesvitticollis), Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), Black naped hare (Lepus nigricollis), several species of rodents and bats.
The reserve has a good presence of tigers and co-predators.
Camera trapping in 698 sq.km. of the tiger reserve have shown the presence of a minimum of 15 tigers in the sampled area.
The Buffer area of Anamalai Tiger Reserve is a 10 kilometer belt of revenue villages and hamlets, along the Northern boundary, adjoining the plains of Pollachi and Udumalpet taluks. In the East, it shares a common boundary, including a 5 kilometer belt falling in two adjoining divisions, viz. Kodaikanal and Dindigul.The interstate boundaries from West, South and East are shared with the Nemmara Forest Division, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, Vazhachal Forest Division, Malayatoor Forest Division, Munnar Forest Division, Eravikulam National Park and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. The Parambikulum Tiger Reserve is within a radius of 10 kilometers of the reserve and is contiguous.
There are several wildlife corridors which include: Navamalai near monkey falls, Punachi in Valparai range, Waterfall, Siluvaimedu, Nadu Ar, Sethumadai–Nenmara and 9/6–Chinnar checkpost. Wild animals like elephant, gaur, tiger, leopard and wild dog use these corridors for their seasonal movement within the reserve, and also between the reserve and adjoining forest divisions like Nenmara, Parambikulam, Malayatur, Vazhachal, Marayur and Chinnar wildlife sanctuary in Kerala, and Dindigul and Kodaikanal forest divisions within the State.
The managerial thrust areas include: reducing the resource dependency of people living within the reserve through ecologically viable options, voluntary relocation, addressing human-wildlife interface, Phase-IV monitoring and stepped up protection.
Innovative alert system for addressing human-wildlife conflict, fire protection, antipoaching strategy, immunization of nearby livestock, control over illegal ganja cultivation and smart patrolling using M-STrIPES protocol.
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve lies on the North eastern and North Western slopes of Nilgiris, descending to the Mysore plateau, at the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The reserve has a rich floral and faunal diversity and is a good source area for tigers, co-predators and prey species. The terrain is undulating with the elevation ranging from 960m to 1266m.
Core / critical tiger habitat : 321.00 km2
Buffer / peripheral area : 367.59 km2
Total : 688.59 km2
Latitudes : 11° 31' 54.9" to 11° 42' 18.5" North
Longitudes : 76° 21'28.9" to 76° 45t 21.5" East
The floral diversity of the habitat ranges from semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous toscrub forests. There are several wild relatives of cultivated plants, viz. wild rice, ginger, turmeric,cinnamon, solanum, guava, mango and pepper which serve as a gene pool for the cultivated varieties. The habitat also has swampy areas (Vayals) and grasslands.
The faunal assemblage includes: elephant, gaur, sambar, four homed antelopes, spotted deer, barking deer, blackbuck, wild pig, mouse deer and predators like tiger, leopard and wild dog.
The reserve has a good tiger density. The 2010 country level assessment has estimated a density of 11 tigers per 100 sq.km.
The managerial thrust areas include: stepped up field protection, day to day monitoring of tiger and 1 major wild animal, securing inviolate space for tiger, limited habitat interventions vis-à-vis the carrying capacity of the reserve for tiger, regulated tourism and fire protection.
The buffer comprises of forests and human settlements with varied land uses. The managerial agenda include: Eco development to provide ecologically sustainable livelihood options to local people to reduce their forest resource dependency, addressing human-wildlife conflicts, protection, monitoring of wild animals, ensuring retrofitting safeguards for wildlife in heavily used public infrastructure and fostering ecotourism.
The reserve is connected to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala and Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka, besides having linkages through the forested slopes of Nilgiris to the Mukurthi National Park in the South, which is further connected to the Silent Valley in Kerala. Towards the East, the newly created Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve connects with the corridor formed by the Moyar River Valley thereby connecting the Mudumalai-Bandipur complex with the BRT Tiger Reserve and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka. Thus, the major corridors are: i) Moyar Valley - Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve – Biligiri Ranganatha Temple Tiger Reserve - Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and the (ii) Mudumalai – Mukurthi National Park - Silent Valley National Park linkages. Besides, there are four small corridors in the Buffer zone of the reserve along the Moyar Valley-Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary which facilitate seasonal movement of elephants between Western and Eastern Ghats, viz., Singara Mavanallah, Kallahatty-Sigur, Mavanallah-Chemmanatham and Moyar- Averallah. Of these, the Moyar-Cauvery linkage is fairly secure, as it passes along the Moyar River Valley, traversing the core area of the reserve and subsequently, through the buffer to the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve while connecting the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary through Biligiri Ranganatha Temple Tiger Reserve. The other corridor from Mudumalai passes through the Gudalur Forest Division (O'valley) and links Mukurthi and Silent Valley National Parks. This linkage is fragmented in the Gudalur area owing toseveral estates, plantations and habitation.The corridor linkages require restoration and ongoing monitoring with a strategy as adopted for the buffer area.
Field protection, intensive tiger monitoring using camera traps, capacity building of officers and staff and fire protection.
The Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve was notified in 2013, encompassing forests of Erode and Sathyamangalam Divisions. The habitat has tremendous biodiversity, and is contiguous with Mudumalai, BRT and Bandipur tiger reserves.
Core area : 793.49331 sq km
Buffer area : 614.91210 sq km
Total : 1408.405 Sq.km
Latitudes : 11º 29’ 15" to 11º 48’
Longitudes : 76º 50' to 77º 27' 22"
Common Species of trees and shrubs found are Albizzia amara Chloroxylon swictenia, Gyrocarpus jacquini, Neem, Tamarind, Sandalwood, Randi dumetorum, Zizyphus and associates.
Because of its continuity with other tiger reserves, the habitat is rich in wildlife. The major species are Elephant, Tiger, Panther, Sloth bear, Gaur, Black Buck, spotted deer, Wild boar, Black napped hare, Common langur Nilgiri langur, Striped neck mongoose and Bonnet macaque.
The spatial occupancy of tiger is good; and the source population is monitored using camera traps.
The core area includes several unique habitats. Strengthening of protection infrastructure is being done along with daily monitoring of tiger and other wild animals. Owing to its contiguity with important tiger source areas like Bandipur, BRT and Mudumalai, the habitat has considerable potential to support a viable tiger population.
The area needs protection against encroachments, since it has interface with habitations. The habitat of the area requires to be protected from grazing by providing alternatives besides, income generation activities, through VFC/eco-development committees. Thus, the inclusive agenda in the buffer is challenging and the priorities include inputs for ecologically sustainable livelihood options to local people addressing human-wildlife interface and wildlife protection.
The Mudumalai – Mangalapatti – Thengumarada – Karachikorai – Bannari is an important corridor (The Great Moyar Corridor) which links the Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves. Thisrequires a management strategy as adopted for the buffer.
Srivilliputhur Megamalai Tiger Reserve (SMTR) was formed during the year 2021, as per G.O.(Ms)No. 14, Environment and Forests (FR-5) Department, Dt.08.02.2021 under section 38 V of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 in accordance with the recommendation made by National Tiger Conservation Authority. On comprising of 47863.25 ha. of Srivilliputhur Grizzled Giant Squirrel Sanctuary area and 53793.88 ha. of Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary area, the Srivilliputhur Megamalai Tiger Reserve was formed with an area of 101657.13 Ha.
The Srivilliputhu Megamalai Tiger Reserve (SMTR) area primarily relies on three perennial rivers: Vaigai, Suruliyaru, and Shanmuganathi. These rivers converge at the Vaigai Dam, serving as the main source of water for five southern districts. Additionally, the Srivilliputhur Division reserve forest area boasts three ephemeral streams: Arjuna Nadhi, Mudangiar, and Sevalperiar. Notably, Mudangiar acts as a vital source of drinking water for the entire Rajapalayam taluk and also features numerous ephemeral streams, including Deviyar, Nagariar, Piravadiyar, Kottamalaiyaru, Kallar, Athithondiyar, Peyanar, Chitar, Kovilaru, Palamalaiyar, Thaniparaiyaru, Papanathakovilaru, Thalamalayankovilaru, and Sevittukiyavankovilaru. These streams reach the foothills of Virudhunagar District. Similarly, Pachaiathukavu Aru, Nondiyaru, Kulatiyaru, Sempu Aru, and S.Kottamalaiyaru reach the foothills of Madurai District. The streams in Virudhunagar District flow eastward, feeding numerous tanks along their course before converging to form the Vaippar River. This river flows in a south-easterly direction and eventually enters Thoothukudi District. In contrast, the streams in Madurai District, except for S.Kottamalaiaru, flow northward, nourishing tanks in Peraiyur Taluk before uniting and reaching Gundar.
The total area of Eco-Sensitive Zone of SMTR is 422.59 Ha. Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary ESZ has been declared vide Gazette of India, New Delhi No.3620 Dt. 11.09.2018 publication of S.O.No.4774(E), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, New Delhi Notification Dt.10.11.2018. The area of Eco-Sensitive Zone is 116.73 ha. The extent of Eco-Sensitive Zone varies from 0 km to 1.70 km around the Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary of this Tiger Reserve. In respect to Srivilliputhur Wildlife Sanctuary, Eco-sensitive Zone has been declared vide Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi Final Notification No. 3974(E) dated 31.10.2019. The area of Eco-Sensitive Zone is 305.86 ha. The extent of Eco-Sensitive Zone varies from 0 km to 6.23 km around the Srivilliputhur Wildlife Sanctuary of this Tiger Reserve.