The South Western Ghats montane rain forests are an ecoregion of southern India, covering the southern portion of the Western Ghats range in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, at elevations over 1000 meters. They are cooler and wetter than the lower-elevation South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests, which surround the montane rain forests.
The Biligirirangana Hills or Biligirirangan Hills is a hill range situated in south-western Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu in South India. The area is called Biligiriranganatha Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary or simply BRT Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a protected reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Being close to the Eastern Ghats as well as the Western Ghats, the sanctuary has floral and faunal associations with both regions. The site was declared a tiger reserve in January 2011 by the Karnataka government, a few months after approval from India's National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Tumakuru District is an administrative district in the state of Karnataka in India. It was formerly a part of the old Mysuru State. Tumakuru District is the second largest district in the state of Karnataka after Belagavi with an area of 10,598 km². It is a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Bengaluru, the state capital. The district is known for the production of coconuts, called as 'Kalpataru Nadu'. It is the only discontiguous district in Karnataka.
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is an International Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills ranges of South India. The Nilgiri Sub-Cluster is a part of the Western Ghats, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012. It is the largest protected forest area in India, spreading across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. It includes the Aralam, Mudumalai, Mukurthi, Nagarhole, Bandipur and Silent Valley national parks, as well as the Wayanad, Karimpuzha, and Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuaries.
Guindy National Park is a 2.70 km2 (1.04 sq mi) protected area of Tamil Nadu, located in Chennai, India, is the 8th-smallest National Park of India and one of the very few national parks situated inside a city. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding Raj Bhavan, formerly known as the 'Guindy Lodge', the official residence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu, India. It extends deep inside the governor's estate, enclosing beautiful forests, scrub lands, lakes and streams.
The chinkara, also known as the Indian gazelle, is a gazelle species native to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. It is notable as an elephant reserve and a tiger reserve. The protected area encompasses 925 km2 (357 sq mi), of which 305 km2 (118 sq mi) of the core zone was declared as the Periyar National Park in 1982. The park is a repository of rare, endemic, and endangered flora and fauna and forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala: the Periyar and the Pamba.
The great Indian bustard or Indian bustard is a bustard found on the Indian subcontinent. A large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, giving it an ostrich like appearance, this bird is among the heaviest of the flying birds. Once common on the dry plains of the Indian subcontinent, as few as 150 individuals were estimated to survive in 2018 and the species is critically endangered by hunting and loss of its habitat, which consists of large expanses of dry grassland and scrub. These birds are often found associated in the same habitat as blackbuck. It is protected under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 of India.
The Deccan thorn scrub forests are a xeric shrubland ecoregion of south India and northern Sri Lanka. Historically this area was covered by tropical dry deciduous forest, but this only remains in isolated fragments. The vegetation now consists of mainly of southern tropical thorn scrub type forests. These consist of open woodland with thorny trees with short trunks and low, branching crowns; spiny and xerophytic shrubs; and dry grassland. This is the habitat of the great Indian bustard and blackbuck, though these and other animals are declining in numbers; this area was at one time home to large numbers of elephants and tigers. Almost 350 species of bird have been recorded here. The remaining natural habitat is threatened by overgrazing and invasive weeds, but there are a number of small protected areas which provide a haven for the wildlife. Trees in these forests have adapted to not require much water.
Madhugiri is a town in Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka. The town derives its name from a hillock, Madhu-giri (honey-hill) which is to the south of the place. Madhugiri is one of the 34 educational districts of the Karnataka state.
Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area and tiger reserve as part of the Project Tiger, situated in Chikkamagaluru district, 23 km (14 mi) south of Bhadravathi city, 38 km (24 mi) 20 km from Tarikere town, northwest of Chikkamagaluru and 283 km from Bengaluru city in Karnataka state, India. Bhadra sanctuary has a wide range of flora and fauna and is a popular place for day outings. The 1,875 m (6,152 ft) above MSL Hebbe Giri is the highest peak in the sanctuary.
Chandoli National Park is a national park spread over Satara, Kolhapur and Sangli Districts, Maharashtra state, India, established in May 2004. Earlier it was a Wildlife Sanctuary declared in 1985. Chandoli Park is notable as the southern portion of the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, with Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary forming the northern part of the reserve
Kuno National Park is a protected area in Madhya Pradesh that received the status of national park in 2018. The protected area was established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary with an area of 344.686 km2 (133.084 sq mi) in the Sheopur and Morena districts. It was also known as Kuno-Palpur and Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests ecoregion.
Kaggaladu is a village in the Sira Taluk of Tumkur district in the south of Karnataka, India. Since 1999, the village has been a host for painted storks and grey herons, which annually breed and raise their young ones on the trees inside the village. Kaggaladu is located about 9 km to the north-west of Sira, a town on the Sira-Chengavara Main Road and the heronry was first made known to the outside world in 1999 by members of the Tumkur-based NGO Wildlife Aware Nature Club.
The state of Karnataka in South India has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It has a recorded forest area of 38720 km2 which constitutes 12.3467719% of the total geographical area of the state. These forests support 25% of the elephant population and 20% of the tiger population of India. Many regions of Karnataka are still unexplored and new species of flora and fauna are still found. The Western Ghats mountains in the western region of Karnataka are a biodiversity hotspot. Two sub-clusters of the Western Ghats, Talacauvery and Kudremukh in Karnataka, are in a tentative list of sites that could be designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks which fall outside these subclusters were included in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in 1986, a UNESCO designation. Biligiriranga Hills in Karnataka is a place where Eastern Ghats meets Western Ghats. The state bird and state animal of Karnataka are Indian roller and the Indian elephant respectively. The state tree and state flower are sandalwood and lotus respectively. Karnataka is home to 406+ tigers.
Pilibhit Tiger Reserve located in Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur Districts of Uttar Pradesh was notified as a tiger reserve in 2014. It forms part of the Terai Arc Landscape in the upper Gangetic Plain along the India-Nepal border. The habitat is characterized by sal forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers. The Sharda Sagar Dam extending up to a length of 22 km (14 mi) is on the boundary of the reserve.
Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve is a protected area and tiger reserve in the Eastern Ghats in the Erode District of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a tiger population of 83 and a leopard population of 111 according to the 2019 census.
The Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary is a 208.5-km2 (80.5-mi2) protected area in the Indian state of Goa in the Western Ghats of South India. It is located in the North Goa District, Sattari taluka near the town of Valpoi. The sanctuary is an area of high biodiversity, and is being considered to become a Project Tiger tiger reserve because of the presence of Bengal tigers.
Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Known primarily as a habitat of the great Indian bustard, the species has suffered a drastic fall in its numbers in the sanctuary in recent years.
Sanjay Gubbi is a conservation biologist based in Karnataka, India. His work focuses on the conservation of large carnivores like tigers and leopards, working on applied aspects and understanding their population biology, proposing conservation policies for their protection, and working to minimize human-wildlife conflict. He currently works as a scientist with Nature Conservation Foundation, a Mysore based NGO.
