Kudremukh National Park
Kudremukh National Park is located in the Chikkamagaluru district in Karnataka. It is known for its wet evergreen tropical forests. The national park comes under the Global Tiger Conservation Priority-I.
The government recently declared Eco Sensitive Zone for the Kudremukh National Park. The ESZ area will be a total of 316.67 sq.km. The ESZ extends from the National park’s boundary up to 9.6km. The 58 villages and 108 revenue enclosures which falls in the ESZ area will have to abide the rules of ESZ. The inhabitants will now have to abstain from any kind of industrial or commercial activities.
FACTS ABOUT KUDREMUKH NATIONAL PARK
• The Kudremukh national park stretches from the Narasimha parvat in the north to the Jamalabad fort in the south.
• Kudremukh National Park covers the areas of three districts namely Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur.
• It was established a Reserved Forest in the year 1916.
• In 1987 it was declared as a National Park.
• The Tunga, the Bhadra and the Nethravathi rivers originate from this national park.
• The famous Kadambi waterfalls is also located in the Kudremukh National Park.
• The National Park has abundant coffee and tea plantations around its northern and eastern boundaries.
• The park covers a total area of 600.32 sqkm.
• Kudremukh was one of the biggest site for iron ore mining until the last decade. The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) which is a government run Public sector company used to operate in the area.
• It was the habitat to a large number of flora and fauna species in the Western Ghats. To protect the valuable forest area and its species the government declared it as a Reserved forest and then as a National Park.
• To prevent extensive cut-and-burn agricultural practises from entering the Ghats, the Kudremukh region was declared a reserved forest in 1916.
• After the area was declared as National Park all the mining and industrial activities had to stop.
• But it was only after a legal fight and protests by environmental activists the KIOCl in 2005 stopped its mining activities in the Kudremukh area.
• In 1983 and 1984, environmentalist Dr. Ullas Karanth conducted a systematic survey and found that Kudremukh is an extensive and suitable habitat for lion-tailed macaques, and that it is most likely the tract with the largest population of lion-tailed macaques outside of the Malabar region.
• The Kudremukh national Park is inhabitated by a wide variety of flora and fauna. There are dense forests teeming with wildlife, including tigers, wild dogs, leopards, Malabar giant squirrels, sloth bears, common langurs, gaur, sambar, barking deer, spotted deer and sloth bears.
• The Malabar whistling thrush, Malabar trogon, imperial pigeon, and great pied hornbill are among the 195 bird species found in the park.
• Snakes and tortoises also live here.
• The place also has a temple dedicated to Goddess Bhagawati and a 1.8-meter-high varaha image.
• It is also home to the Malabar Slender Loris and the world's longest venomous snake, the king cobra.