CAUVERY SOUTH WILDLIFE SANCTUARY - ENVIRONMENT
News: Tamil Nadu notifies Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary
What's
in the news?
●
The Tamil Nadu Government has declared an
area in the reserve forests of
Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri as the Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary.
● It is the 17th wildlife sanctuary of the state.
Key
takeaways:
●
Comprising an expanse of 686.406 sq. km,
this would be part of a protected landscape contiguous with the forests that
currently constitute the Cauvery North
Wildlife Sanctuary, shared between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
●
It has been constituted under Section
26A(1) (b) of the Wild Life (Protection)
Act, 1972.
●
The declaration will give uniform legal
status and protection to a contiguous network of protected areas that would
stretch to over 50 km.
● The declared landscape lends continuity to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve through the Malai Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary, Billigiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve and Erode Forest Division of Tamil Nadu.
Elephant
habitat:
●
According to the notification, the
landscape now declared as the Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary is an important
elephant habitat comprising of two
elephant corridors:
○
Nandimangalam-Ulibanda
Corridor
○ Kovaipallam-Anebiddahalla Corridor.
Ecosystem:
●
The ecosystem of the Cauvery basin is also
critical to a large number of riverine species dependent on River Cauvery.
● The sanctuary’s rich biodiversity supports over 35 species of mammals and 238 species of birds, which also includes red-listed species in need of conservation.
Tiger
conservation:
●
The Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary is
also seeing spill-over effects of tiger conservation in the adjacent contiguous
areas, and habitat improvement will help recover prey bases and support tigers
that once inhabited this landscape in the past.