Conservation Value of and Hornbill Conservation Reserve

NBWL clearance for Mill Development Plan for expansion and augmentation of capacity of various installations at West Coast Paper Mill unit located at Bangur nagar,

Kali Tiger Reserve (1100 Sq. Km) and Hornbill Conservation Reserve(52.5 Sq. Km) are located in biologically sensitive an UNESCO world heritage site and a global hotspot. Kali Tiger Reserve is composed of Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi National Park. KTR is located in Joida taluk of Uttar district. It is composed of tropical evergreen, tropical semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forest types. It is home to Tiger, Leopard, Wild dog, Elephant, Indian , Indian Pangolin, Great Indian Hornbill, Castlerock Night Frog and many other charismatic species of endangered and endemic Flora and Fauna. The area holds one of the highest population of Great Indian Hornbills in Western Ghats. The Hornbill Conservation Reserve was notified by Government of under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 vide Notification no. FEE 157 FWL 2009 dated 31-05-2011. It is situated in the reserved forest areas bordering Dandeli Town. The primary objective of this conservation reserve is to preserve the habitat of Hornbill which is a flagship species of Western Ghats. The forest areas adjoining the WCPM plant site proposed for augmentation and expansion of its various constituent units form an important tiger corridor of Central western ghats. It is a well established corridor connecting the tiger habitats in Karnataka, and Southern . From Camera Trap records, it is found that Tigers from Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Kali Tiger Reserve and Sahyadri Tiger Reserve use this corridor regularly for dispersal. The Phase IV monitoring records from Kali Tiger Reserve show active utilization of this landscape by 25 individual tigers. The landscape map of Kali Tiger Reserve and Hornbill Conservation Reserve is given in Figure 1.

Field Director

Kali Tiger Reserve

1 Figure 1: Kali Tiger Reserve and Hornbill Conservation Reserve - Landscape

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