Daroji Bear Sanctuary 2022 entrance board

Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary is located in

Ballari district Ballari, formerly Bellary (pronounced ), is a major district in Karnataka. It is located at north-eastern part of Karnataka. This district belongs to Kalyana-Karnataka. This district was one of the biggest districts in Karnataka until the Vi ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. This is Asia's first sloth bear sanctuary. It is spread over . The sanctuary was created exclusively for the conservation of the

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus''), also known as the Indian bear, is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of ...

. It is about 50 km from

Ballari Ballari (formerly Bellary) is a city in the Ballari district in state of Karnataka, India. Ballari houses many steel plants such as JSW Steel, JSW Vijayanagar, one of the largest in Asia. Ballari district is also known as the ‘Steel city of ...

and about 15 km from the World Heritage Site

Hampi Hampi or Hampe (), also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the town of Hampi in Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi predates the Vijayanagara Empire; it is menti ...

. The area between Daroji in Sandur taluka and Ramasagar of Hospet Taluk is host to numerous

s. In October 1994, the Government of Karnataka, declared 5587.30 hectares of the Bilikallu Forest Reserve as Daroji Bear Sanctuary. 15 years later, in October 2009, the government added 2685.50 hectares of the Bukkasagara Forest Reserve to the sanctuary. This resulted in the overall area to increase from 5587.3 hectares to 8272.8 hectares. The sanctuary is open between 14:00 and 18:00 every day. There is a watchtower within the sanctuary, opposite Karadikallu Gudda, that provides a vantage point to view the bears descending from the adjacent hillocks during evening hours.

Mythology

Kishkindha Kishkindha (, ) is a kingdom of the vanaras in Hinduism. It is ruled by King Sugriva, the younger brother of Vali, in the Sanskrit epic ''Ramayana''. According to the Hindu epic this was the kingdom that Sugriva ruled with the assistance of hi ...

, the historical kingdom of

Sugriva Sugriva (, ), is a character In the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana. He is the younger brother of Vali (Ramayana), Vali, whom he succeeded as ruler of the vanara kingdom of Kishkindha. He is a son of Surya, the Hindu deity of the sun. As the king ...

described in the Ramayana, is believed to be located on the bank of the

Tungabhadra river The Tungabhadra River () starts and flows through the state of Karnataka, India, for most of its course, then through Andhra Pradesh where it ultimately joins the Krishna River near Murvakonda. The Tungabhadra derives its name from two strea ...

. In the war against

Ravana According to the Mahakavya, Hindu epic, ''Ramayana'', Ravana was a kingJustin W. Henry, ''Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below'', Oxford University Press, p.3 of the island of Lanka, in which he is the chief antag ...

, Kishkinda, the monkey kingdom of Sugriva, was Rama’s ally. When Rama’s army crossed

en route to

Lanka Lanka (; ) is the name given in Hindu epics to the island fortress capital of the legendary Rakshasa king Ravana in the epics of the ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata''. The fortress was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks kn ...

, they met Jambavantha, a bear who joined the army.

Flora & Fauna

The flora of this sanctuary is primarily dry deciduous scrub and Southern thorn forests. At the time of declaration of the sanctuary, it was a large area of barren hillocks, but persistent efforts from Karnataka Forest Department have transformed the area into lush green forest, filled with local flora. The sanctuary's flagship species is the Indian sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus)''. It has a very stable population of sloth bears and they reside in the numerous caves found in the hillocks within the sanctuary.

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

monitor lizard Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and West African Nile monitor, one species is also found in south America as an invasive species. A ...

mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family has two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to southern Europe, A ...

pangolins Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: ''Manis'', '' Phataginus'', and '' Smutsia''. ''Manis'' comprises four species found in Asia, while ''P ...

, star tortoises etc. are some of the other animals that abound in the sanctuary.

Threats

The bears are threatened due to illegal mining in fragmented areas of the adjoining forests. The forest department and NGOs have also rescued many domestic bears from Daroji and surrounding areas. The age old practice of capturing a bear cub (claws are pulled out and male cubs are castrated) and domestication by Kalandars has reduced to a great extent, due to laws declaring them illegal. The domesticated bears were taken from home to home across villages and made to dance according to the direction of the Kalandars.

External links

* http://www.junglelodges.com/sloth-bear-resort * http://jresearchbiology.com/documents/RA0330.pdf * https://web.archive.org/web/20160225062532/http://jresearchbiology.redolences.com/documents/RA0331.pdf

References

"An assessment of Floristic Diversity of Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, Hospet, Bellary District, Karnataka, India". http://jresearchbiology.com/documents/RA0330.pdf "Butterfly fauna of Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, Hospet, Bellary District, Karnataka". https://web.archive.org/web/20160225062532/http://jresearchbiology.redolences.com/documents/RA0331.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Wildlife Of Karnataka Tourist attractions in Ballari district Wildlife sanctuaries in Karnataka 1984 establishments in Karnataka Protected areas established in 1984