Geographically, SVWS lies in central Western Ghats region of Karnataka State . Administratively, it forms the western part of Sagar taluk of Shimoga district. The sanctuary is bounded between the latitudes 13°50'24” to 14°12'57”N and longitudes 74°37'32”to 74°59'27”E (Figure 1a and b). In the northern and eastern part of the sanctuary, huge reservoirs like Linganamakki and Talakalale are situated with a continuous valley of Sharavathi river running from east to west. Mookambika wildlife sanctuary is to the south-western direction, western part of the sanctuary lies in the Venkatapura river basin. South of the sanctuary has a range of hills with medium altitudes.

The sanctuary extends over an area of 431 sq.km, with the Linganamakki reservoir covering 124 sq.km. The overall terrain of the sanctuary is highly undulating with altitude ranging from 94 m (Nagavalli) to 1102 m (Devakunda). The region receives South-west monsoon during June to October with an average annual rainfall of 4500 mm. The average minimum and maximum temperatures are 15 ° C and 38 ° C respectively. The copious waters received during the intense monsoon rainfall are drained by numerous streams, which ultimately join either the river Sharavathi or river Venkatapura. The vegetation of the region mainly consists of tropical evergreen to semi-evergreen type of forests, moist deciduous forests, and grasslands and savanna. Most of the streams, whose catchments are particularly covered with tropical evergreen forests, are perennial in nature.

Figure 1a. Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.

4.1 Background

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During early 20 th century, this region was under the control of the princely State of Mysore. It declared all the forest areas as ‘protected forests' and as ‘state forests' during 1905-1920. The construction in 1932 of the Hirebhaskar dam across the river Sharavathi, for generating hydel power, was a major developmental activity of the region. Later, Linganamakki dam in 1964-65, and subsequently the Talakalale dam were constructed across the same river, which led to a series of impacts on flora and fauna of the region. It has resulted in submersion of many villages affecting local people and they were shifted to the surrounding areas.

After the enactment of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and Forest Conservation Act, 1980, more emphasis was given for wildlife protection and creating awareness among the people about the need to conserve wildlife. On 2nd February 1972 , Sharavathi Valley was declared as Wildlife Sanctuary (vide Government order No. AFD 70-FWL-71). An independent wildlife division was started in 1993, which is headed by Assistant Conservator of Forests. The sanctuary is divided into Kargal and Kogar ranges with an area of 169.94 sq. km and 261.29 sq.km respectively. The sanctuary was categorised into a core zone (73.33 sq.km), a buffer zone (170.67 sq.km) and a tourist zone (57.53 sq.km) for management purposes. Overall the sanctuary has six State Forests as given in Table 2. Apart from these state forests, the sanctuary has submersion area of about 123.63 sq.km, islands covering about 5.07 sq.km and the remaining other land forms 86.21 sq.km. Further division of these forest ranges into sections and beats are given in Table 3.

4.2 Social Aspects

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The rural livelihoods of our focal area are closely related to the natural environment and derive most of their needs from it. Majority of the people are Hindus and Jains, followed by Muslims and Christians. The Hindu community is further divided into a number of castes and sub-castes. Hindu community is a complex mixture of Brahmin, Deevaru, Lingayath, Besta, Kuruba and other castes and subcastes. Some of the Scheduled Castes of the area are Banjaras, Bhovi, Korama, and Sillekhyatha. There are also some Scheduled Tribes such as Hakki-Pikki, Hasalaru and Kuruba. Most of these people are rural residents and heavily depend on the forests for their livelihood. Each caste type has unique and specialised dependence on natural resources. The most familiar and popular language of the region is Kannada. Konkani, Urdu, Tamil, and Marathi are also frequently spoken. Less frequent are Tulu, Hindi, and Malayalam speakers. The total population is 11,013 and the villagewise break-up is provided in Table 4.

As per the 2001 census, the study area has a total population of 13,101, with an increase of 3.9% per year (nearly 2.5 times the growth rate of entire India - 1.7%). The density of population is about 30.4 persons/sq.km. Impact on natural forest due to an alarming increase in human population is evident from various impacts on forests, such as fragmentation, increased harvest of fuel, overgrazing by cattle, etc.