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Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve is located in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka and was notified as a tiger reserve in 2014. It forms part of the Terai Arc Landscape in the upper Gangetic Plain along the India-Nepal border. The habitat is characterized by sal forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers. The Sharda Sagar Dam extending up to a length of 22 km is on the boundary of the reserve.

Pilibhit is one of the few well-forested districts in Uttar Pradesh. According to an estimate of the year 2018, Pilibhit district has over 800 km2 forests, constituting roughly 23% of the district’s total area. Forests in Pilibhit have at least 65 tiger and a prey including five species of deer. The tiger reserve got the first International award TX2 for doubling the tiger population in a stipulated time.

History
The protected area used to be a timber yielding reserve forest, until it was declared as the 46th tiger reserve in June 2014.

Geography
The northeastern boundary of the reserve is the River Sharda, which defines the Indo-Nepal border, while the southwest boundary is marked by the River Sharda and the River Ghaghara. The reserve has a core zone area of 602.79 km2 and buffer zone area of 127.45 km2. Elevation ranges from 168 to 175 m.

Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve

Flora
The major forest types of the reserve as per Champion and Seth’s classification (1968) are: 1. Southern Tropical Evergreen forests 2. Southern Tropical Semi-evergreen forests 3. Southern Tropical Moist deciduous forests The major species include: Anogeissus latifolia, Dalbergia paniculata, Grewia teliaefolia, Terminalia alata, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia paniculata, Stereospermum perso- natum and Syzygium cumini. The tree species in the second storey are: Buchanania lanzan, Careya arborea, Hymenodictyon excelsum, Kydia calycina, Schleichera oleosa and Sterculia villosa. The third strata include: Cassia fistula, Phyllanthus emblica, Raderma cheraxylocarpa, Boswellia serrata, Commiphora caudate, Givotia rottleriformis, Gsyrocorpus asiatica, Sterculia urens, along with Lagerstromia parviflora, Pterocarpus marsupium.

Fauna
As many as 26 mammals have been recorded of which Gaur, Sambhar, Spotted deer, Barking deer and Four horned antelope are the major ungulates. Carnivores of the habitat include: Tiger, Leopard, Wild dog, Lesser cat and Civet cat. The arboreal mammals comprise of two primates and three species of Squirrels including the Giant flying squirrel. There are 215 species of birds belonging to 44 families, of which 12 are endemic to the region; the notable ones are: Yellow throated bulbul, Nilgiri wood pigeon, Rufous bellied hawk eagle and Peregrine falcon. As many as 22 reptiles and 11 Amphibians have been also recorded. Icthyophis ghytinosus, is an endangered caecilian reported from tiger reserve.

Tiger Status
The habitat has considerable tiger presence with a density of 9 per 100 sq.km.

Corridor
The major corridors of the reserve are: 1. Edayarhalli-Doddasampige (Bekkathur-Arabikere) 2. Chamarajanagar-Talamalai at Punjur (Punjanur-Kolipalya) 3. Chamarajanagar-Talamalai at Mudahalli(Talavadi-Mudahalli) There are major elephant corridors, viz. Punjur-Sathyamangalam and Bylore-Ediyarahally. These corridors are vital as they help in movement of animals including elephants during pinch period in the forest.

Managerial Issues and Good Practices
Antipoaching operations and stepped up protection are important thrust areas.The tiger reserve management has innovatively developed a software (HULI), which is a foot patrol monitoring system using GPS.