Anamalai Tiger Reserve

About Anamalai Tiger Reserve:

• It is a protected area located at an altitude of 1400 m in the Anamalai Hills of Pollachi and Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu.
• It lies south of the Palakkad gap in the Southern Western Ghats. 
• It is surrounded by the Parambikulum Tiger Reserve on the east, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, and Eravikulum National Park on the southwestern side.
• The reserve is also surrounded by the Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur, and Marayur reserved forests of Kerala.
• It was declared a tiger reserve in the year 2007.
• Habitat:
  • It supports diverse habitat types, viz. Wet evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, dry thorn, and shola forests.
  • Other unique habitats like montane grasslands, savannah and marshy grasslands are also present.
• Flora:
  • Around 2500 species of angiosperms are found in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, with several species of Balsam, Crotalaria, Orchids, and Kurinchi.
  • The reserve is rich in wild relatives of cultivated species like mango, jackfruit, wild plantain, ginger (Zingiber officinale), turmeric, pepper (Piper longum), cardamom, etc.
• Fauna: The important wild animals of the reserve include: Tiger, Asiatic elephant, Sambar, Spotted deer, Barking deer, Jackal, Leopard, Jungle cat, etc.

Q1: What is a Tiger Reserve?

Tiger Reserve is a legally declared protected area dedicated to the conservation of striped big cats. A tiger reserve, on the other hand, could be a national park or wildlife sanctuary. The Sariska Tiger Reserve, for example, is also a national park.

Source: Community, individual rights accorded to tribal settlements in Anamalai Tiger Reserve