SATHYAMANGALAM TIGER RESERVE -UPSC Current Affairs

Description

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Context

Tamil Nadu Forest department commenced a elephant census at Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.

About Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve

It is a protected area and tiger reserve in the Eastern Ghats in the Erode District of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, the Gateway to Eastern Ghats, is a significant ecosystem and a wildlife corridor in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve between the Western Ghats and the rest of the Eastern Ghats.
It is a genetic link between the five other protected areas which it adjoins, including the Billigiriranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Sigur Plateau, Mudumalai National Park, Bandipur National Park and the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.

History

First various geographical tracts of the Sathyamangalam forests were declared reserve forests.
Patches of Sandalwood Reserves were notified under the Indian Forests Act, 1927.
The Sathyamangalam Forest Division is part of the Bramhagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats Elephant Reserve notified in 2003.
In 2008, part of the Sathyamangalam Forest Division was declared as a wildlife sanctuary.
In 2013, with an area of 1408.6 sq. km. of the erstwhile sanctuary was notified as Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, the fourth tiger reserve in the state of Tamil Nadu as a part of Project Tiger and is the third largest tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu.

Flora

The Sathyamangalam forest is mostly tropical dry forest, part of the South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests ecoregion.
About 65% of the forest division is under forest cover.
Significant areas of mixed shrubland and grasslands support a large population of herbivore ungulates, the preferred prey of tigers.

Fauna

The Sathyamangalam forests link the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats allowing gene flow between diverse fauna populations of the two eco-regions.
The wildlife survey conducted by Government of Tamil Nadu enumerated Bengal tigers, Indian elephants, gaurs, and leopards. The survey party observed four additional species of horned antelope.
Sathyamangalam forests is part of a protected area, which consists of the largest Asian elephant population in the world.

Tribal population

These forests are home to indigenous tribal people belonging largely to the Irula tribe (also known as the Urali) and Soliga communities.
The forests were also the home of notorious criminal and bandit Veerapan, who made a living poaching ivory and sandalwood from the forests and selling them on the black market.

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PRACTICE QUESTION

Q) Which of the following statements with reference to Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve is/are correct?

1. The Sathyamangalam forest is mostly tropical dry forest.

2. These forests are home to indigenous tribal people belonging largely to the Irula tribe.