Client / Financial Support: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment

The Billigary Rangan Temple Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the BR Hills in Karnataka, one of the lesser known wildlife sanctuaries in the country. The Sanctuary has much of the large mammal fauna that is found in most parts of peninsular India – elephant, gaur, chital, sambar, sloth bear, tiger. It also has a large tribal population that has been extracting a variety of resources from these forests, including honey from wild bee combs, amla and other NTFPs. An impressive history of ecological and socio-economic research has been conducted in the BR Hills Sanctuary over the past decade.

Based on discussions between foresters, scientists of various persuasions and the Soliga tribals, we examine key issues related to Soliga use of the forests, including the role of forest fires started by the Soligas in facilitating or inhibiting Amla regeneration; the effectiveness of LAMPS, the cooperative society that markets produce extracted by the Soliga, and the place of research in management of areas such as the BR Wildlife Sanctuary.