BR hills
From Wild India
The Biligirirangan Hills, commonly called B R Hills, is a hill range situated in south-eastern Karnataka at its border with Tamil Nadu.
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Introduction
The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple wildlife sanctuary (BRT), is a little gem of astonishing bio-diversity. It spreads over an area of 540 Sq. km and is located between 110 43I and 120 08I N latitudes and 770 01I and 770 15I East longitude. Located at the eastern most edge of the Western ghats, BRT is considered as biogeographic bridge between the Western and the Eastern ghats. The hills are in the Yelandur taluk of Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka. The hills are contiguous with the Satyamangalam range southwards, in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu. The area is 90 km from Mysore and 180 km from Bangalore. It is connected by road, one from Yelandur and the other via Chamarajanagar. The hills are located at the easternmost edge of the Western Ghats and support diverse flora and fauna in view of the various habitat types supported. A wildlife sanctuary of 322.4 km² was created around the temple on 27 June 1974, and enlarged to 539.52 km² on 14 January 1987. The sanctuary derives its name “Biligiri” either from the white rock face that constitutes the major hill crowned with the temple of Lord Rangaswamy, or from the white mist and the silver clouds that cover these lofty hills for a greater of the year. BRT has an amazing diversity of vegetation types such as scrub, dry and moist deciduous, evergreen, sholas and high-altitude grasslands. This diversity of forest types supports a rich variety of fauna, avi-fauna, insects and butterflies. BRT is also known for its many endemic species of plants including valuable medicinal ones. BR Hills constitute a live link between the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats facilitating an active exchange of gene pools between them. Thus this sanctuary serves as an important biological bridge for the biota of the entire Deccan plateau. BR hills along with the Male-Madeshwara (MM Hills) range are a distinctly unusual mountain range running north-south amidst the plains of Bangalore-(~900 m) Mysore-(~600m) and Krishnagiri-(~450 m) surfaces. The peaks of these lofty ranges rise as high as 1800 m (BR hills 1400 to 1800 m; MM Hills 1000 to 1200 m). The highest hill is Kattari Betta, at 1800 MSL. Biogeographically, BRT sanctuary is very uniquely located. Between 11° and 12° N along its north-south running chain. Western Ghats projects itself in a north-easterly direction and meets the splintered hills of the Eastern Ghats at 78° E. This unique extension of Western Ghats constitutes a live bridge between the Eastern and Western Ghats with the sanctuary located almost in the middle of this bridge. Thus, the biota of BRT sanctuary can be expected to be predominantly of Western Ghats in nature with significant proportion of eastern elements as well.
Climate and Vegetation
The sanctuary, ~35km long north-south and ~15 km wide east-west is spread over an area of 540 sq. km with a wide variation in mean tempterautre (90°C to 160°C minimum and 20°C to 38°C maximum) and annual rainfall (600 mm at the base and 3000 mm at the top of the hills) The hill ranges, within the sanctuary raise as high as 1200 m above the basal plateau of 600 m and run north-south in two ridges. The wide range of climatic conditions along with the altitude variations within the small area of the sanctuary have translated it into a highly heterogeneous mosaic of habitats such that we find almost all major forest vegetation types – scrub, deciduous, riparian, evergreen, sholas and grasslands. The forests harbour close to 800 species of plants from various families and shows a close affinity to the Western Ghats.
Flora and Fauna
The Biligiris are covered with dry broadleaf forest, part of the South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests ecoregion. The forests range from scrub forests at lower elevations, degraded by over-use, to the tall deciduous forests typical of the ecoregion, to stunted shola forests and montane grasslands at the highest elevations, which exceed 1800 meters. The forests form an important wildlife corridor between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, linking the largest populations of Asian Elephants and tigers in southern India. The most conspicuous mammals are the herds of wild elephants. In fact, BR hills is the only forest east of the main Western ghats mountain ranges in the central southern peninsula to harbour these panchyderms in large number. The forests were the study area of one of the premier elephant scientists of India in the early eighties. But the flagship species of BRT is the Indian gaur. They reach their peak condition here and probably thrived well because of the lack of predation, since its main predator, the Tiger is only now making a comeback. The major predator presently is the Leopard followed by Dhole (wild dog). There are a total of 26 mammal species in BRT and about 278 species of birds, about 22 species of reptiles and an amazing 116 species of Butterfiles. A preliminary survey of Ants in BRT yielded 48 species constituting about 8% of the total ant species in India! Many ant species have been recorded for the first time in India ! Among the other mammals at BR hills are sambhar, chital, barking deer and the rare four-horned antelope. Carnivores include tigers, leopards, wild dogs, lesser cats and sloth bears and among arboreal mammals two species of primates and three species of squirrels including the giant flying squirrel are recorded. A recent (2005) survey of tigers by DNA analysis of scat samples has revealed 17 tigers, although the number may be more. 254 species of birds recorded in BR hills.
People and Culture
For hundreds of years this region has been the home for the semi-nomadic Soliga tribe. The forest regions of Yelandur, Chamrajanagar and Kollegal, including the hilly tracts and foothills of Biligiri Ranga and Male Mahadeshwara in the southern part of Karnataka, are inhabited by nearly twenty thousand soliga tribal people. The Soligas inhabiting this range were nature worshippers originally, and revere a large Champaka tree (Michaelia champaka), called Dodda Sampige in the local tongue. (See Soliga section for details) Randolph Morris, a Scotsman brought coffee into the hills in the latter half of the 19th century. The estate he established at Honnametti was later continued by his son Col. Ralph Morris, a hunter-naturalist, who published prolifically about the Natural history of the hills in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. He left the hills after independence, and the estate is today privately owned. His daugher re-visited the places she grew up in and has written a book, 'Going back'. Among the many reputed guests that Col. Morris had, were the late Dr. Salim Ali, who visited him during the Birds of Mysore survey and the late E P Gee, a naturalist. The estate still preserves the home of the Morrises. The hills are famous for the temple of Lord Ranganatha. The local form is called Biligiriranga. The deity is a standing form of Ranganatha, and is probably the only place one can see Ranganatha in the standing form. The Annual Car festival of the deity is famous in the region and attracts thousands of piligrims from far and wide. The temple is situated on the 'white cliff' which gives the hill its name. There have been numersous Megalithic burial sites that have been discovered from within and in the immediate vicinity of the sancutary, testifying to the presence of indigenous people in these regions for a long time. There are two local NGOs (ATREE and VGKK) which work for integrated tribal development and biodiversity conservation in the sanctuary. ==Threats== Quarrying in the fringes of the hills is rampant after the brief lull of activities during the time when the dreaded bandit Veerappan was on the run. After his death, the quarrying activities have taken off with renewed vigour with strong political backing. The Forest department and the local NGOs were instrumental in banning disposal of plastic within the sanctuary. Overgrazing, firewood collection etc. are other threats
Tourism
Jungle Lodges has a Wilderness Camp at K Gudi (Kyathadevara Gudi) with 11 tented cottages. Visit www.junglelodges.com for more details.
Links
- http://www.teriin.org/case/biligiri.htm - An enterprise based approach to conservation: the case of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple wildlife sanctuary
- http://www.teriin.org/biodiv/medicine.htm - Sustainable harvest of medicinal plants: a case study of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary
- ATREE (http://www.atree.org)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biligirirangan_Hills - BR Hills on Wikipedia
References
- Flora of BR Hills, BR Ramesh, French Institute of Pondicherry (http://www.ifpindia.org)
- Additions to the birds of BR Hills, Aravind et. al.
- Going back, Monica Jackson
- Soliga - The tribe and its stride, privately published * Faunal survey of BR Hills, Karthikeyan,S et. al.
