The Karnataka Forest Department recently started collecting green tax, Rs 10 from two-wheelers and Rs 20 from four-wheelers, entering BR Hills through BRT Tiger Reserve.
About Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve:
- Location: It is located in the Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka State.
- The tiger reserve derives its name from ‘BILIGIRI ‘, the white rocky cliff which has a temple of Lord ‘VISHNU’, locally known as ‘Rangaswamy’.
- This unique bio-geographical entity, situated in the middle of the bridge between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in South India, was constituted as a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1974. BRT Wildlife Sanctuary was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2011.
- Vegetation: The forests of BRT Tiger Reserve are principally of dry deciduous type and are interspersed with moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen, and shola patches occurring at varying altitudes.
- Flora: The major species include Anogeissus latifolia, Dalbergia paniculata, Grewia teliaefolia, Terminalia alata, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia paniculata, etc.
- Fauna: Animals including tiger, elephant, leopard, wild dog, bison, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, four-horned antelope, sloth bear, wild boar, common langur, bonnet macaque, varieties of reptiles, birds, etc., are found in the Tiger Reserve.