Located in Mysore district, the Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary, occupying an area of 30.32 sq km was formed in 1974 and includes the Nugu Reservoir to the north. The sanctuary lies between the longitudes 11o52'49.3"E to 11o56'51.76"E and latitudes 76o25'49.62"N to 76o28'37.24"N. Elevation ranges from 719-790 m with an annual rainfall of 856 mm. The reservoir of Nugu dam, two seasonal lakes and three tanks form the water resources for this sanctuary.

Most of the vegetation in the forests is dry, deciduous interspersed with patches of plantations. Common species of trees found in this sanctuary are Anogeissus latifolia, Tectonia grandis and Terminalia tomentosa. Other species of trees that are dominant in this forest canopy include medicinal and commercially important tree species like Emblica officinalis, Santalum album, Albizia spp. and Dendrocalamus strictus (Pascal et al. 1982).

Many of the large and medium sized mammals found in the other protected areas of the Western Ghats are resident here too. These include jungle cats (Felix chaus), leopard (Panthera pardus) and deer species like spotted deer or chital (Axis axis), sambar (Cervus unicolor), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) and mouse deer (Moschiola meminna). Other small mammals like the grey mongoose (Herpestes edwardsi), small Indian civet (Viverricula indica), common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and jackals (Canis aureus) are quite common in this sanctuary (Lal et al. 1994).

Some of the birds seen in this sanctuary include, grey headed fishing eagles (Icthyophaga icthyaetus), grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), hoopoe (Upupa epops), Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus), Indian robins (Saxicoloides fulicata), common teals (Anas crecca), lesser yellownape woodpeckers (Picus chlorophus) and black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus). All four species of egrets i.e. cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis), great egret (Casmerodius albus), little egret (Egretta garzetta) and intermediate egret (Mesophoyx intermedia) can be easily spotted here (Lal et al. 1994).

Among the reptiles, marsh crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) can be spotted in the rivers (Lal et al. 1994).

Fires are a major threat to this sanctuary. Since the sanctuary is not open for tourists, it is not yet affected by the threat of commercial tourism. A serious threat to the forests of this protected area comes from the farmers and livestock in the neighboring villages, who venture inside the forest, whenever there are poor rains and water scarcity. The Nugu dam within the sanctuary then serves as a watering station for both, the villagers and the cattle (Lal et al. 1994).

References

Kazmierczak, K. 2000. A field guide to the birds of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistn, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. OM Book Service, New Delhi, India. 352 pp.

Lal, R., Kothari, A., Pande, P and Singh, S (eds). 1994. Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary. In: Directory of national parks and sanctuaries in Karnataka: Management status and profiles .Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, India. pp 127-130.

Menon, V. 2003. A field guide to Indian mammals. DK (India) Pvt Ltd and Penguin Book India (P) Ltd. 201 pp.

Pascal, J.P., Shyam Sundar, S. and Meher-Homji, V.M. 1982. Forest map of South India: Mercara-Mysore. French Institute, Pondicherry, India.