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Thursday, June 18, 2009

MALABAR WILDLIFE SANCTUARY


MALABAR WILDLIFE
SANCTUARY

The proposed Malabar wild life Sanctuary will consist of 7,421.50 hectares in chakkittapara and Chembanoda villages of Koyilandi taluk in kozhikode disctrict. Those include the reserve forests of pannikottoor and kakkayam and vested forests of karampara mala and olathukki malavaram and sankaran puzha, attikode and waterspread area of kakkayam reservoir.
Out of about 2,200 hectares of pannikottoor forests, about 400 had been excluded from the sanctuary of that about 115 hectures had been identified for the proposed Tiger Safari park while 94 hectares had been leased out to the Indian Institute of spices Research. The balance is fragmented areas``
The richness of biodiversity and conservational significance of the proposed sanctuary area had been identified by various agencies. So, the government found it necessary to declare the area as a wildlife sanctuary for protecting the ecological,faunal,floral,geo- morphological and natural wealth and ensuring its long term conservation. since the rights over the said reserve forests and vested forests were yet to be settled. The Government had decided to notify the proposed sanctuary under sub – section(1) of section 18 of the wild life protection Act.
Preliminary Ecological studies of the forests of Kakkayam by the Malabar Natural History society have shown that the area was rich in diversity of flora and fauna. It was 0nce a good patch of wet evergreen forest fragmented later by the construction of the Kuttiyadi hydroelectric project plantations and human settlements. Now it is only ever green patch left in Kozhicode district. More than 40 species of mammals have been recorded from the reserve , including three endemic to the western Ghats brown Palm givet. The area also harbours more than 110 species of birds including 8 endemic, six restricted range species and 2 globally threatened species. In addition 94 species of Butterflies have been recorded in the region.

Prof John Kurakar

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