Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve to compete for UNESCO award

• Conservation initiatives and its success stories in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve (NBR) are going to be showcased for the award instituted by the UNESCO to mark the 40th year of its theme "Man and Biosphere."
• NBR was the first biosphere in India and is one of the acclaimed hotspots of bio-diversity. NBR stands for a number of challenges that it faced in conservation initiatives and also for success stories overcoming the challenge
• The recent success in conservation of NBR was the restoration of a crucial elephant corridor. The narrow elephant corridor measuring 1 km width and 10 km length involving 3,500 acres from Kallati to Bokkapuram via Mavanallah and Semmanatham is a mile stone in the history of any forest Department. It is not just a restoration of a lost corridor but also that of lost pride in the history of NBR.
• Elephants in Mudumalai, Bandipur and Nagerhole and Wayanad on one side of the Nilgiris hills and the jumbos in reserve forests such as Sathyamangalam, Coimbatore, Erode and Mannarkad need a corridor to migrate. In the absence of such a cross forest migration and stagnation within the confined forest areas, gene exchange will be affected. This could lead to the population of elephants especially the calves becoming an unhealthy one
• The golden shake through which tribal families are re-located from Ayyankudi to Mullampadi near Gudalur was another success story in NBR. These conservation initiatives and success stories overcoming challenges would be showcased for bagging the UNESCO award.
• A proposal in this connection will be forwarded to the State Government and then it would reach the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests before sending it to UNESCO.