Data Zone
Country/territory: India
IBA criteria met: A1, A2 (2004)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 88 ha
| IBA conservation status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of assessment (most recent) | State (condition) | Pressure (threat) | Response (action) |
| 2003 | not assessed | high | not assessed |
| For more information about IBA monitoring, please click here | |||
Site description (2004 baseline)
This tiny Sanctuary is situated near the Chunchunagiri Temple, a pilgrim centre in Mandya district. It consists of undulating terrain, scrub forests and plantations. The core of the Sanctuary consists of typical inland South Indian Hill characterised by gaint tors heaped up on by boulders of varied sizes. It is the only Sanctuary in India declared especially for the peafowl, and is named Mayur Vana (Peafowl Forest) in the notification. People in the area are known to give protection to this bird due to religious sentiments. The Sanctuary has five seasonal streams, and three perennial waterholes, of which one is natural and two artificial. It can be reached by road from Bangalore to Nelligere (100 km) via Nagamangala, and then 12 km further on to the Sanctuary. Tropical Dry Deciduous Scrub and Southern Thorn Scrub are the major forest types (Rodgers and Panwar 1988). Most of the natural scrub forest has been cleared to plant Eucalyptus. This was done before declaration of the Sanctuary. The dominant natural trees are Acacia nilotica, A. leucophloea, Albizzia amara, Anogeissus latifolia, Azadirachta indica, Tamarindus indica and species of Ficus. Calotropis gigantea attracts many birds and butterflies
Key biodiversity
AVIFAUNA: This Sanctuary has been selected as an IBA due to the presence of a good population of Yellow-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus xantholaemus (S. Subramanaya pers. comm. 2003). Although the site lies in Biome-11 (Indo-Malayan Tropical Dry Zone), it also has some species of Biome-10 (Indian Peninsula Tropical Moist Forest) such as Small Green-billed Malkoha Phaenicophaeus viridirostris, White-cheeked Barbet Megalaima viridis, Loten’s Sunbird Nectarinia lotenia and Jerdon’s Nightjar Caprimulgus atripennis. BirdLife International (undated) has identified 59 species under Biome-11 (Indo-Malayan Tropical Dry Zone), out of which 13 have been seen in this site till now, most of them quite common and widely distributed.
OTHER KEY FAUNA: Despite its small size (88 ha only), Adichunchunagiri Wildlife Sanctuary has many mammals, due to the protection provided by the temple authorities. Even Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus and Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra are reported here. The site has about 12 species of reptiles, five species of amphibians and an interesting diversity of other inverteberate fauna (Prasad et al. 1991).
Acknowledgements
Key contributors: S. Subramanya, J. N. Prasad and S. Karthikeyan.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Adichunchunagiri Wildlife Sanctuary (India). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/adichunchunagiri-wildlife-sanctuary-iba-india on 22/11/2024.