Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary:
12-year-old male tiger was brutally hunted, dismembered, and buried at Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary recently, four months after a previous poisoning incident.
- Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary is located at the intersection of the Western and the Eastern Ghats and falls in the Chamarajanagara District of Karnataka.
- It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2013.
- It is contiguous to Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, and the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.
- It’s the home of the famous Male Mahadeshwara Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, known here as Mahadeshwara.
- Male Mahadeshwara Hills is bound by the Kaveri River to the northeast and by the Palar River to the south.
- The forests of MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary are principally of the dry deciduous type, degrading to scrub forest in the fringe areas, and are interspersed with patches of moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen and shola forests occurring at varying altitudes.
- Flora: Anogeissus latifolia, Boswellia serrata, Hardwikia binata and Chloroxylon swietenia etc.
- It is home to several animals, including elephants, Indian bison, wild dogs, leopards, foxes, sambars, spotted deer, and many species of birds.
- It is also a tiger habitat noted for its increasing number of tigers.
