{"id":111417,"date":"2021-06-09T17:40:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=111417"},"modified":"2021-06-09T17:43:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T12:13:39","slug":"srivilliputhur-mudumalai-tiger-reserve-and-vaigai-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/srivilliputhur-mudumalai-tiger-reserve-and-vaigai-river\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Srivilliputhur-Mudumalai Tiger Reserve&#8221; and &#8220;Vaigai River&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><strong>What is the news?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The declaration of the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu can rejuvenate Vaigai, India\u2019s heritage river.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tiger Reserves in Tamil Nadu<br \/>\n<\/strong>Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve will be the 5th tiger reserve of Tamil Nadu. The other four are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mudumalai (MTR)<\/li>\n<li>Anamalai (ATR)<\/li>\n<li>Sathyamangalam (STR)<\/li>\n<li>Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>About Vaigai River:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Vaigai is a river in <strong>Tamil Nadu<\/strong>. The river is also referred to as <strong><em>Shiva Ganga<\/em><\/strong> in many places.<\/li>\n<li>It is also called <em><strong>Kritamaala<\/strong><\/em>, for it runs around the city of Madurai like a garland<\/li>\n<li>It travels through the Pandiya Nadu region of Tamil Nadu.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Historic significance: The Vaigai<\/strong> was the river that flowed through the city of Madurai, the capital of the ancient and prosperous Pandya kingdom located in southern Tamil Nadu.\n<ul>\n<li>The river also finds a mention in Sangam literature dated to 300 before the Common Era (BCE).<\/li>\n<li>The story of Vaigai is told in <strong>Thiruvilayadal Puranam<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Origin: <\/strong>The river originates in the <strong>Varusanadu Hill<\/strong>s, the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Empties into: <\/strong>The river finally empties into the <strong>Palk Strait<\/strong> near the Pamban Bridge in Ramanathapuram district.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tributaries: <\/strong>Its main tributaries are Suruliyaru, Mullaiyaru, Varaaga Nadhi, Manjalaru, Kottagudi, Kridhumaal and Upparu.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Vattaparai Falls<\/strong> are also located on this river.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance: <\/strong>The river fulfils the drinking water requirement of five districts of Tamil Nadu namely Theni, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Dindigul.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>How did things deteriorate for the Vaigai River?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The deterioration of the Vaigai River happened at the <strong>end of the 18th century<\/strong> when the British started deforesting the Megamalai region which acts as a major catchment for Vaigai.\n<ul>\n<li>Consequently, the <strong>water flow in the river reduced<\/strong> gradually. As a result, a famine occurred and around 2 lakh people died in this region in 1876-77.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Following the famine, the British Crown proposed <strong>diverting water from the Periyar<\/strong> and feeding it to the Vaigai through Periyar Dam. After the dam completion, the water from Periyar was successfully brought to the Vaigai and was revived again.<\/li>\n<li>Presently, due to the <strong>indiscriminate removal of sand from the river<\/strong>, whatever water flows into the Vaigai gets drained within a few days.<\/li>\n<li>Moreover, <strong>Megamalai as a Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) also failed to withstand undue pressure.<\/strong> The sanctuary is devastated by the encroachers and the money-minded private estate owners which resulted in the degradation of the existing forests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How will the declaration of Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve help?<br \/>\n<\/strong>It is expected that the declaration of Srivilliputhur-Megamalai as a Tiger Reserve will help protect wild animals and the natural forests, their habitats which act as watersheds.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This will provide protection to Megamalai, the Vaigai River\u2019s primary catchment, in turn helping water levels to rise in the river.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Also read<\/span>: <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tiger-reserves-in-india\/\">Tiger reserves of India<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>About Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve<\/strong> is the fifth Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu and the 51st\u00a0tiger reserve of India.<\/li>\n<li>It was jointly declared as a Tiger Reserve by the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments in February 2021<\/li>\n<li>For this, the Megamalai WLS and the adjoining Srivilliputhur WLS were clubbed together.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vegetation: <\/strong>It has a mix of tropical evergreen forests and semi-evergreen forests, dry deciduous forests and moist mixed deciduous forests, grassland.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fauna: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meghamalai<\/strong> has a<strong> large population of ungulates<\/strong> (hoofed mammals), spotted deer, Indian gaurs, wild boars and other carnivores.<\/li>\n<li>The adjoining <strong>Srivilliputhur <\/strong>hosts grizzled giant squirrels, flying squirrels, leopards, Nilgiri tars, jungle cats, Sambars, elephants, lion-tailed macaques and many species of birds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/blog\/environment\/a-tiger-reserve-declared-this-year-can-rejuvenate-vaigai-india-s-heritage-river-77165\"><strong>Down To Earth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the news? The declaration of the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu can rejuvenate Vaigai, India\u2019s heritage river. Tiger Reserves in Tamil Nadu Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve will be the 5th tiger reserve of Tamil Nadu. The other four are: Mudumalai (MTR) Anamalai (ATR) Sathyamangalam (STR) Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) About Vaigai River:&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/srivilliputhur-mudumalai-tiger-reserve-and-vaigai-river\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Srivilliputhur-Mudumalai Tiger Reserve&#8221; and &#8220;Vaigai River&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1351,1310,4182,9],"tags":[1317],"class_list":["post-111417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-environment","category-public","tag-env_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}