Project to link tiger reserves in Kerala, Tamil Nadu

The World Bank is funding a comprehensive Western Ghats biodiversity conservation project which will serve to link the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve in Kerala with the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. When completed, it will reopen (for the first time in over 100 years) a traditional migration route for large animals on the northern side of the Periyar Elephant Reserve to the Agasthyamala Biosphere and vice versa.An area of 9,993 sq km will be covered under the project. The Rs.28-crore project, 'Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Livelihood Improvement Project' or 'Landscape Project,' is to be implemented in six years through people's institutions such as Vana Samrakshana Samithies (VSS) and Eco Development Committees (EDC). The Periyar Elephant Reserve comprises a forest area stretching from Thekkady in Kerala to Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. The southern side of the reserve, which starts from Konni in Pathanamthitta district and spreads over Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts up to the forest areas of Kanyakumari district, forms the Agasthyamala Biosphere. The northern side includes the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve. But a major portion of the Agasthyamala Biosphere remains cut off from the northern side of the Periyar Elephant Reserve. According to Kerala Forest Department's Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) K.J. Varghese, it is the Aryankavu gap in Kollam district which keeps both sides separated. The gap is the result of the century-old road and rail network laid by the British connecting Kollam in Kerala and Shencotta in Tamil Nadu.
Large animals such as elephants, tigers, gaurs and leopards are unable to cross the gap because of human intervention. One of the prime aims of the Landscape Project is to create a corridor at Aryankavu for large animals, especially elephants, to cross over and roam freely on both sides. After a comprehensive survey, the ideal location for the corridor has been identified at the Murugappan Chaal near Aryankavu. Here there is a railway flyover and a road over-bridge running parallel across what used to be a traditional migration route for wild elephants. The project proposes to create a 100-metre wide elephant corridor at the Murugappan Chaal. Its length will be decided as per the requirement.Mr. Varghese says that for the realisation of the corridor, human habitation on a 90-hectare area will have to be trans-located and a forest cover created. Together with it, the road bridge will have to be replaced by a flyover. But the World Bank fund cannot be utilised for it and the road flyover will be taken up as a separate project.
The Centre will be approached for funds. Another feature of the project is that an area of 2 km on the boundary of the forest in Kerala has been included in the project. In Tamil Nadu this is 5 km. Mr. Varghese says that separate management schemes will be evolved for this land, be it plantation, habitation or agriculture land.In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the project will be implemented by the people's institutions under the supervision of separate State-level registered societies with high-power committees having representation of various departments
The Hindu sep 18