K’giri, D’puri forests named Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary

CHENNAI: The State government on Tuesday notified 68,640 hectares of Reserve Forest (RF) in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts as Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary. The 17th wildlife sanctuary for TN has been notified under Section 26A (1) (b) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

The notification was released following the announcement made by the government on April 25 to declare Cauvery South as a wildlife sanctuary. Subsequently, Forest Department officials also sent the notification to wildlife sanctuaries in Hosur and Dharmapuri divisions.

The reason for the notification is to preserve the biodiversity in the area. Additionally, the sanctuary is an important elephant habitat in Southern India, also being critical for several riverine species dependent on river Cauvery. The region is home to nearly 35 species of mammals and 238 species of birds. Animals such as leith’s soft-shelled turtles, grizzled giant squirrel, smooth-coated otter, marsh crocodile, four-horned antelope, lesser fish eagle and more are majorly dependent on the Cauvery and its ecosystem. Forest officials had said that these animals are also red-listed and in need for focused conservation efforts, thus calling it to be immediately notified.

The sanctuary has important elephant corridors – Nandimangalam-Ulibanda Corridor and the Kovaipallam-Anebiddahalla Corridor. Incidentally, the efforts taken for tiger conservation in the adjacent areas have caused a spill over, causing tigers to occupy these traditional ranges, where they have been extinct for a few decades. Habitat improvement will bear good results, officials anticipate. As per the notification, RF included in the sanctuary form a unique ecosystem of the river basin and constitute the last forested low-lying stretches of the river before it ends in the Stanley Reservoir.

Besides this, the landscape maintains further continuity to the Nilgiri biosphere reserve through Malai Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary, Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve alongwith Erode forest division of TN.