Good rain in 5 tiger reserves raises hope of less man-animal conflicts

Reserve forests in the state are now under a lush green carpet and the dams have started receiving inflow, thanks to the above-normal rainfall in all the five tiger reserves of the state in the past two months and the water managers are confident of managing the irrigation and drinking water supply for the next eight months.

The rainfall ahead of the pre-monsoon season that starts in October is encouraging and this will reduce the pressure on water managers and the foresters handling the human-animal conflicts near the tiger reserves, a senior official said.

According to state Public Works Department sources monitoring the reservoir levels, the water inflow into Mettur, Bhavanisagar, Sholayar, Krishnagiri and Parambikulam dam is increasing due to the rainfall in forest catchment areas and the water level in most of the dams are at comfortable levels above 55 per cent of their storage capacity. Similarly, the rains are also picking up along the Western Ghats and the upstream Cauvery basin.

On Thursday, Papasanam in Tirunelveli, Merttur in Salem, Bhavanisagar in Erode, Periyar and Parambikulam in TN – Kerala border are all receiving more than 1,000 cusecs each and the rains are continuing, sources said. However, there is no inflow of water into the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai and Vaigai dam in Madurai, sources said.

The storage level at Bhavanisagar is more than 80 per cent of its capacity and is likely to overflow by next month. Similarly, the water level at Mettur is around 69 feet against its full capacity of 120 feet, sources said.

“The water levels in the upstream reservoirs in Nilgiris is picking up and we are confident that that by October, the rivers originating from Nilgiris, Sathaymangalam and Anamalai tiger reserves will be in spate as the water storage levels are picking up in the grasslands of Nilgiris,” said a forest range officer. Usually animal conflicts and straying of wild animals are less when there is a normal rainfall and the forest areas have started receiving intermittent rains, the official added.

Though eco-tourism spots inside tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries are now open for the public, core stretches are now closed down due to heavy rains in Megamalai, Mudumalai, Valparai and Kudhiravetti forests known for the thick rainforest canopy cover, forest department insiders said.