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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

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).

MAIN THREATS: Excessive human interference; Vegetation denuded by increasing pressure from pilgrims.

Except for the disturbance by pilgrims, there does not appear to be any major issue. Even this cannot be considered of any significance, because the Sanctuary owes its existence to the temple. Peafowl move freely and are the main attraction to many pilgrims. Grazing by cattle and browsing by goats has affected the non-tree vegetation in the Sanctuary, especially on the shrub Secureniga leucopyrus, the fruit of which is eaten by over half dozen birds including the Yellow-throated Bulbul. Granite quarring and poaching was recorded (Prasad et al. 1991). About 50,000 pilgrims visit the temple during festive occasion. In recent years, increasing numbers of pilgrims are putting pressure on the forest. This can be stopped through the active involvement of the Temple trustees.

Key contributors: S. Subramanya, J. N. Prasad and S. Karthikeyan.

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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 23/11/2024.