ARALAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

 

ARALAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

 

 

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ARALAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary is the northern part protected area of Kerala state situated in the south-east part of Kannur District. It is contiguous block of forest stretching to the adjacent Wayanad Brahmagiri and Wayanad northern slopes. The forests are also contiguous with the protected areas in the Karnataka state namely the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary  and also with the forests of Coorg. Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary rambling over 55 sq. km. forms the catchment feeding Cheenkanni river and Urutti river which meander their way down to join Valapattanam river.

HISTORY OF ARALAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

About 35 sq. km, of the Sanctuary area was under private forests till the year 1971. The remaining 20 Sq. km. formed part of the Kottiyoor Reserve Forest. It is believed that till 930 AD all these forests were part of the territories of the Ganga Dynasty of Mysore till they were ousted by Kadambad. Subsequently these areas were held by Hoysala Dynasty, madhava Vinayaka and kings of Vijayanagar. During the 17^th and till the later part of the 18^th century Wodeyar kings of Mysore held authority over these areas. Then came Hyder Ali and Tipu Sulthan, After the Srirangapatna treaty the British claimed the area. However Pazhassi Raja was allowed to retain his rights subject to certain conditions. Pazhassi did not recognize this agreement and subsequent to the death of Pazhassi, the forest areas became the property of British by right of conquest.

 

Till 1859 the British Government was busy with revenue settlement and not attention was paid to theforest area. In the year 1859 Government took steps to settle its claim over the forest tracks, during the course which many of the private ownership were also recognized. In certain case the private claims had been officially admitted to the Government Interests. During those days the demand for timber was not very high. But the royal trees like teak, rosewood, ebony etc. always had market. By and large private owners of the forests were allowed to exploit the forests at their own will. The royal trees were felled indiscriminately bringing lot of revenue to the owner. This paved the way for the fragmentation of the forests. Over exploitation of royal trees also created demand for other trees. This resulted in further deterioration of the forests.

The private ownership was known as Jenmy system. The extent owned by them varied from 16 to 16000 ha, Onset of World War the scenario and the Government was constrained to enact legislation regarding the administration of private forest. Then the Madras Preservation of Private Forest Act as Act xxxvii of 1949 came in to force. This Act stipulated that prior permission to of the collector of the concerned district was necessary before any alienation of private forests and that prior permission should be taken before cutting trees or doing any Act likely to derive the forests or diminish its utility as a forest.

The madras preservation of private Forest Act was intended to be a temporary measure. However further legislation was delayed due to some reason or other. The formation of Kerala also changed the scenario. The owners of the land allowed outsiders to cultivate the cleared areas resulting in irreparable damage to forests. Ultimately, the Kerala Private Forests Act was passed in 1971. The Act was challenged in the court and the Kerala High Court struck it down on 21.06.1972. Again the Government issued an ordinance on 29.06.1972. Thus there was a vacuum during which large scale felling and removal of trees took place from private forests all over the state.

Odamthode Mallavaram, which is thus vested in Government, was under the administrative control of the Tellicherry Special Division. A large chunk of this forest, about 3060 ha, was cleared for setting up a Central State Farm at Aralam ever before 1971. A separate administrative unit had supervised the clearing operations. The Kottiyoor portion of the Sanctuary is a reserved forest created as per the provisions of the Madras Forest Act. No large scale felling was done in these areas. However selection felling of mature trees were done in the past.

 

Sanctuary was formed by carving out areas from the Odamthode Malavaram of Thalassery Special Division and from the Kottiyoor Reserve Forest of Wayanad forest Division. The vested forest portion of the Sanctuary is about 35 sq. km, and the remaining portion is part of the Kottiyoor Reserve forest. Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary established in the year 1984, as per G.O. (p) No. 300/84/AD dt. 15.10.1984. This Sanctuary was part of the Wayanad Wildlife Division on working arrangement, till 30.06.1998. From 01.07.1998 onwards the Sanctuary has started functioning as a new Division viz. Aralam Wildlife Division.

GEOPHYSICAL FEATURES

Location

Northernmost part of Kannur district

Year of establishment with GO number

1984 as per G.O. (p) No. 300/84/AD dated 15/10/1984

Area

55 sq.km.

Altitude

60 mt. to 15 mt.

Aspect

The aspect is mainly western and this is exemplified in the type of vegetation in the

major portion of the tract.

Annual Rainfall

minimum 3800 mm

maximum 5050 mm

 

 

Forest Types

 

1.    West Coast Tropical Evergreen Forest

2.    West Coast Tropical Semi Evergreen Forest

3.    South indian Moist Deciduous forest

4.    Southern Hilltop Evergreen Forest

FAUNA

A total of 46 species of mammals were recorded from the Sanctuary. All The five species of primates are present in the area. Arboreal mammals other than primates seen in this area are the Malabar giant squirrel and the Flying squirrel. Other mammals in the area include the Indian Elephant, Sambar deer, Barking deer, Mouse deer, Wild boar and Gaur. The Tiger and Leopard are the predators in the area. A detailed bird survey has shown a total of 231 species of birds in the Sanctuary. Of these 11 species are endemic to Western Ghats. A Recent survey has shown that there are 196 species of butterflies in the Sanctuary. Among the butterfly species, 12 are endemic to the Western Ghats. A total of 45 species of reptiles under 12 families are found in Sanctuary. 38 species of fishes are found in the river and streams of the Sanctuary, 54 spider species have been reported from the Sanctuary

 

ACCESS

20 km, from bus stand at Iritty

65 km from Kannur and Thalassery railway Station

180 Km from Karipur (Kozhikode) airport