Tamil Nadu to set up biodiversity museum at Agasthiyamalai Elephant Reserve

The museum aims at conserving biodiversity through education, training, and creating awareness among stakeholders. It also will offer livelihood opportunities to local people.

Agasthiyamalai Elephant Reserve

The Agasthiyamalai Elephant Reserve, notified in August 2022, is contiguous with the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu’s first reserve for the big cats set up in 1976.

The Tiger Reserve is also known as the “River Sanctuary” as 14 rivers, including the Thamirabarani river, originate from the area. Incidentally, the reserve was originally envisaged to conserve the endangered lion-tailed macaque.

The main objective of the Agasthiyamalai Elephant Reserve is to protect the important habitats and corridors of Asiatic elephants in the southern Western Ghats to maintain a viable elephant population.

Also Read: Tirunelveli citizens come together to save the Thamirabarani river

Knowledge centre

Additional Chief Secretary (Environment, Climate Change, and Forests) Supriya Sahu said the reserve will be unique.

“The declaration of Agasthiyamalai Elephant Reserve will provide a contiguous corridor for elephants from the Nilgiris to Agasthiyamalai and it will be easy for the conservation of elephants,” she told South First.

As of 2017, Tamil Nadu had 17 elephant corridors. New corridors might have emerged while some might have fragmented due to land-use changes.

Elephant corridors are narrow, connecting links between two places the animals use at their own risk, according to Dr. PS Easa, wildlife expert and former member of the Elephant Task Force, Ministry of Environment and Forests.

“Further, the Conservation Center will teach the young generation and the people about the need for the conservation of elephants and other wild animals. It will be a knowledge center,” Sahu added.

The senior official in Tamil Nadu said it might take five to six months to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR).

“We have identified a site at Kakachi at Ambasamudhiram taluk in Tirunelveli and the project will be implemented in a year once the DPR is finalised,” she said.