Environment, Ecology & Earth's biodiversity

[Rishi]

After Kalakkad-Mundanthurai was declared tiger reserve in 1992, river has regained its perennial status.

Though shorter than Cauvery and Vaigai, Tamirabarani has always held a special place in the state. Referred to in ancient texts including the Mahabharata, legend has it that Tamirabarani is where saint Agastya wrote key texts of the Tamil language.

Robert Caldwell, British linguist and missionary, recorded its importance in the 1880s. At the same time, a British collector of Tirunelveli (then Tinnevelly), R K Puckle, warned that large-scale clearing of forests in the Kalakkad area would result in the river losing its perennial status.
Nearly a hundred years later, it seemed the state was going to prove Puckle right. Tamirabarani started turning dry for 4 months every year. People of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin thought their river too was going the way of other state rivers.

But a move to save the tiger inadvertently became a savethe-river policy. The Union ministry of environment and forests declared the Kalakkad - Mundanthurai area as a tiger reserve in 1992.

This meant not only human movement & construction activities into the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) would be restricted, but also requires the government to declare buffer zones outside the core forest where development is regulated.This also helped the river rejuvenate. Wildlife officials formed eco-development committees through which forest dwellers were given alternative jobs. The programme was launched in 178 villages but was later extended to 243 villages around KMTR. Now 34,000 families are getting the benefits - this means they have stopped going into the forest to collect minor forest produce.
Declaring the area as a tiger reserve and keeping it out of bounds for, casual visitors and cattle grazers not only helped the tiger population to rebound but has helped to keep water sources alive and functioning throughout the year.

The protected shola forests have a sponge effect by storing rainwater and releasing it. The soil layers, vegetation and the peat bed all help to keep the river perennial.

In 3 years, there was a noticeable change. A study on water inflow into the Karayar river, a tributary, inside the reserve was taken up.Records show that from 1946 till 1990, the river received only 13,000 cubic feet of water annually . After the area was declared as a tiger reserve, the inflow increased to 23,000 cubic feet."This is continuing even today ," said the official.

Tamirabarani is the main source for drinking and irrigation in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts.The water is also taken through pipelines to Sivakasi, Virudhunagar and Srivilliputhur.

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