Anamalai Tiger Reserve

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Kozhikamuthi, a Malasar tribal settlement in the core area of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, is known for the occupation — capturing, taming and handling wild elephants for the Forest Department.

• This is the second elephant camp of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, after the one at Theppakkadu in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

Anamalai Tiger Reserve

• It is one of the four Tiger Reserves in Tamil Nadu. It forms part of the Southern Western Ghats.
• It forms part of the Anamalai Parambikulam Elephant Reserve declared in 2003.
• It is surrounded by Parambikulam Tiger Reserve on the East, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Eravikulam National Park on the South Western side (all belong to Kerala).
• The reserve is also surrounded by Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur and Marayur reserved forests of Kerala.
• The ranges found in this reserve include Amaravathi, Udumalpet, Pollachi, Ulandy, Valparai and Manamboli.

Anthropological Diversity:

• The area has significant anthropological diversity with more than 4600 Adivasi people from six tribes of indigenous people living in 34 settlements.
• The tribes are the Kadars, Malasars, Malaimalasar, Pulaiyars, Muduvars and the Eravallan (Eravalar).

Flora:

• It includes wet evergreen forest and semi-evergreen forest, montane shola-grassland, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, thorn forests and marshes.

Fauna:

• The important mammals include: Asiatic elephant, Sambar, Spotted deer, Barking deer, Mouse deer, Gaur, Nilgiri tahr, Tiger, etc.

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

• Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is located in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu state at the tri-junction of three states, viz, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It is a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve along with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the West, Bandipur National Park (Karnataka) in the North, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley in the South.
• The name Mudumalai means the ancient hill range.

Flora:

• The Reserve has tall grasses, commonly referred to as ‘Elephant Grass’.
• Bamboo of the giant variety, valuable timber species like Teak, Rosewood, etc.
• There are several species of endemic flora.

Fauna:

• Flagship Species: Tiger and Asian Elephant.
• Other species: Indian Gaur, Spotted Deer, Common Langur, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Wild Dog, Jungle Cat among others.

Birds:

• Reserve has got a wide variety of more than 260 species of birds.
• 8% of bird species found in India are recorded in Mudumalai.
• This includes rare birds like Malabar grey hornbill, Malabar pied hornbill, Malabar laughing thrush among others.