Why in news?
- The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS), home to the largest number of tigers in Kerala, is losing out on tiger reserve status following resistance by the local people.
About the sanctuary:
- The sanctuary, spread over 344.44 sq km, is an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere in the Western Ghats.
- It is contiguous to the tiger reserves of Nagerhole and Bandipur of Karnataka and Mudumalai of Tamil Nadu.
- A recent tiger monitoring programme of the Forest Department found that 75 of the 176 tigers in the State are in the WWS, which is part of a large forest complex holding the single largest population of tigers in India.
- The sanctuary comes under Project Elephant.
