CHENNAI: Taking a big leap in elephant conservation, the Tamil Nadu forest department's proposal to declare 1,197.48 sq. km in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli as Agasthyamalai Elephant Reserve has reached fruition with the Union environment ministry notifying it. This is the fifth elephant reserve in Tamil Nadu.
"On #WorldElephantDay2022, I'm glad that Tamil Nadu gets its 5th Elephant Reserve at Agathiyamalai in Tirunelveli District. Elephants play a critical role in balancing forest ecosystems. The majestic mammals are nature's assets that we must conserve at all costs," Chief Minister MK Stalin said in a tweet responding to the development.
Additional Chief Secretary of Environment and Forest Department Supriya Sahu said the notification of the new Agasthyamalai Elephant Reserve was one of the most significant milestones in conservation efforts for elephants.
Now, the forest department will get additional funding under the centrally-sponsored Project Elephant. Although the area is already protected as a reserve forest or wildlife sanctuary, elephant reserve status will focus on the protection and conservation of elephants as indicator species representing a healthy ecosystem. The elephant corridors will be identified and better management practices can be adopted.
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The Periyar-Agasthyamalai landscape is estimated to have 1,800 Asian elephants (Census 2010). Of these about 300 are isolated on the southern side of the Agasthyamalai and Mahendragiri hill ranges in the evergreen forests of Thiruvananthapuram Forest Division, Neyyar, Shendurney, and Peppara Wildlife Sanctuaries, and Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. The elephant population south of this is in the Periyar-Agasthyamalai landscape located in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and extends over 5600 sq km across 16 forest
divisions.
The elephant habitat in the landscape comprises the southern part of the Periyar Plateau and its eastern spur, the Varushnad and Meghamalai hill ranges, the Achankoil valley, and the Agasthyamalai and Mahendragiri hill ranges on the southern side. "Notifying this landscape as an elephant reserve will bring focused management of this landscape and will secure the corridors that are most important
for genetic dispersion of the Asian elephant in this landscape and will link the populations to other areas in Srivilliputhur Meghamalai tiger reserve and with the Periyar landscapes," a senior forest official said.