Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary | 28 Jun 2025

Source: TOI 

A tigress and her four cubs were found dead in Karnataka’s Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) Wildlife Sanctuary, suspected to have been poisoned amid escalating human-wildlife conflict. 

Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary 

• About: It is located in Chamarajanagar district, southeast Karnataka, near the Tamil Nadu border, and was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2013.  
  • Its topography includes mainly dry deciduous forests, along with patches of moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen, and shola forests at varying altitudes. 
• Ecological Importance: It is contiguous with Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, forming a critical tiger corridor between the two states. 
  • It is home to tigers, leopards, elephants, apart from a rich density of prey species. 
• Tiger Reserve Status: The proposal to upgrade MM Hills to a Tiger Reserve has been pending for nearly 15 years. If approved, Chamarajanagar will become the first district in India to host 3 tiger reserves—Bandipur, BRT, and MM Hills. 
  • Karnataka has the second-largest tiger population in India (563 tigers) after Madhya Pradesh (785 tigers). 
• Human Settlements: The region is home to two dominant communities: the Soligas, indigenous former hunter-gatherers, and the Lingayats, temple priests from Mysore engaged in temple management.