As part of our ornithology course we had a trip to Parambikulam tiger reserve on march 27 & 28 th we were accompanied by Mr Sreeni Sir and Mr Ashique Ali Sir . the trip was really informative and we had a great experience . Parambikulam area is situated in the hotspot Western Ghats . Recently it was declared as tiger reserve earlier it was known as wildlife sanctuary it is included in palaghat district . Reserve is in the Sungam range hills of annamalai hills & nelliyampathy hills .
We should enter the reserve through Tamil Nadu During our journey from the foothills we were able t o experience different topographical features . from the foot hills to the top according to altitude changes the different forest type were seen .In the low altitude range it have a dry deciduous forest and from there we have a moist deciduous forest . dormitory and office were situated at a height of 650 m MSL from there nearly 18 kms to Parambikulam .We were able to see that most of the trees shed their leaves and area is highly prone to fire as a preventive measure fire line were taken we have a sighting of mouse deer . the office environment is very nice and every building is specially named . Many medicinal plant specimens are placed and all were labeled .We reached there by 5:00pm and we had a interactive session with the wildlife warden Mr Sanjayan Kumar (IFS). he was very friendly and supportive . he was graduated from TNAU and then get in to UPSC . He briefly explained about the historical aspects and programmes ongoing there.
Parambikulam is the second tiger reserve of the state and 38 th of the country. " Parambikulam WLS had 285 km2 area and it was established in 1973.But declared as WLS in 1985.It is in sangam range of hills in between Anamalai hills & Neliyampathy hills. It is situated in Chittoor thaluk of Palaghat. It was declared as tiger reserve in 17 February 2010.The reserve share boundary with nelliyampathy,Sholayar and Chalakkudy division . Now the reserves have a core area of nearly 390sq km and buffer area of 252 sq km.Project Tiger by central govtfrom 2006 onwards known as National tiger conservation authority under the state govt . . The vegetation include Evergreen, semi ever green, dry deciduous, moist deciduous, shoals, marshy grass land .There are two rivers, Kuriarkutty & Karappara. The fauna includes 39 sps. Of mammals,268+bird sps, 47 sps of fishes, 124 sps of butterflies, 61 sps of reptiles. About 50 are endemic to WG. He said about the occurrence of Purple frog, which is the oldest member of frog family. He also added about the rich flora. There are 4 tribal communities indigenous to Sanctuary. They are Kadar, Malasar, Muduvar & Maha Malasar. The Eco Development Committee is working well there.Forest management is done by having working plan and wildlife management is done by conservation plan.we got lot of information about the history, Flora, Fauna, management, problems, Tribal communities, Economic aspect, and conservation aspect of the reserve. In 2006 census up to 7 tigers were counted .There was also a report of breeding of Lesser Fishing Eagle, which is found only in Himalaya.Main problem of the Tiger conservation is the poaching which was done with the help of local people who are economically back ward. But tiger needs a complete undisturbed habitat and these poaching leads to habitat loss of tigers.Fragmentation and Habitat loss were the serious problem .
On the very next day wehad a trekking of nearly 18 kms to Vengoli. At 8 'clock we reached Kooriyarkutti. The trekking was very hard one because of the high temperature & lack of water.We go through transistion stage from dry deciduous to moist deciduous .some of the tree species were Anogeissus latifolia,Pterocarpus marsupium,Schlicheria oleosa. Strobilis asper.Entada scandens the liana which produce largest legume pod was added information. There we could see the Cycas plants, liana like Butea frontosa, trees like Adina cordifolia, Cinnoimum sps, Pongamia pinnata, Macaranga peltata,.The trekking completed about 2 'o clock. After that we visited the Kannimaara teak, which is the oldest & largest living teak of the world. It has 450 years old & got 'Mahavriksha Puraskar' in 1994.It has about 48.5 m height & gbh of 6.57m.It was believed to be virgin by tribal community. It was a great experience to see that grandold teak tree.
