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Site description (2004 baseline):

The Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctuary lies in the Western Ghats. It has an area of 43,123 ha, but 12,363 ha (and an additional 507 ha of islands) in the eastern part of the Sanctuary is occupied by Linganamakki Reservoir, serving the dam on the Sharavathi river, constructed in 1964-65. The remaining area has been divided into a core zone (7,433 ha), buffer zone (17,067 ha) and tourism zone (5,753 ha). The Sanctuary shares its southwestern boundary with the Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary (Manjrekar 2000). The spectacular Jog Falls, where water from the Sharavathi river falls from a height of almost 300 m, is present on the northern boundary of the Sanctuary. Sharavathi can be reached by road or rail from Bangalore to Talguppa (352 km) via Tumkur, Shimoga and Sagar, then another 7 km by road to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary has mainly tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen and some tropical moist deciduous forests. The top canopy of the evergreen forests is made up of Dipterocarpus indicus, Calophyllum tomentosum and Machilus macrantha. The middle storey has among others Caryota urens and Aporosa lindleyana. In the Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, common species include Lagerstroemia lanceolata, Hopea parviflora, Dalbergia latifolia, Dillenia pentagyna, Careya arborea, Emblica officinalis, Randia sp., Terminalia sp. and Vitex sp.

AVIFAUNA: Around 50 species of birds are reported from the site (Ameen Ahmed pers. comm. 2003). However, this is only a preliminary list as detailed work has not been done in this IBA. This Sanctuary was selected as an IBA due to its great potential as an Endemic Bird Area, having Western Ghats restricted range bird species.

OTHER KEY FAUNA: The Sanctuary has a good population of Gaur Bos frontalis, and 3 to 4 groups of Lion-tailed Macaque Macaca silenus. Other mammals of the Sanctuary include Tiger Panthera tigris, Leopard P. pardus, Wild Dog Cuon alpinus, Golden Jackal Canis aureus, Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiata, Langur Semnopithecus entellus, Wild Boar Sus scrofa, Spotted Deer Axis axis, Barking Deer Muntiacus muntjak, Mouse Deer Moschiola meminna, Common Otter Lutra lutra and Porcupine Hystrix indica. Reptiles of the Sanctuary include King Cobra Naja naja, Indian Rock Python Python molurus, Rat Snake Ptyas mucosus, Marsh Crocodile Crocodylus palustris and Monitor Lizard Varanus bengalensis.

MAIN THREATS: Grazing; Hydroelectric project; Encroachment; Poaching.

This IBA suffers from a litany of problems such as encroachment and conversion of forests into paddy fields and arecanut plantations. Another major problem is the Linganamakki Reservoir, which occupies almost half of this Sanctuary. A considerable patch of the forest has been broken into many islands by the reservoir. Most of these islands are very small. There are about 121 villages within the Sanctuary having grazing rights due to which the biotic pressure is very high in the eastern and northern portions. The biggest threat is from the Sharavathy Valley Tail Race Hydroelectric Project that would destroy 700 ha of prime evergreen forest, of which about 100 ha lie within the Sanctuary. Even if technically, most of the forest is outside notified Sanctuary, it has great biological values. The actual damage to the green cover would be much more than officially admitted, considering the corruption such projects generally entail. The project is to be located near Gersoppa on the Hanovar-Bangalore state highway, 2 km from Gersoppa town. The length of the dam will be about 560 m and height about 55 m from the deepest riverbed. The catchment area will be nearly 15,000 ha. The power house will work on continuous release of water from the main Sharavathy dam.

Key contributors: Thejaswi Shivanand and Ameen Ahmed.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (India). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/sharavathi-valley-wildlife-sanctuary-iba-india on 23/12/2024.