Jakanari reserve forest

Jakanari reserve forest is a reserve forest in north of Coimbatore where Forest College and Research Institute is situated. This forest is in the foothills of Jakanari mountain of Nilgris. Kotagiri Ghat (State Highway 15) runs through this reserved forest. The Kotagiri Ghat is the oldest known route into the Nilgiris. It approximately follows the route taken by John Sullivan on his discovery trips in 1819. The distance between Mettupalayam and Kotagiri on this road is 33 km and it has only 4 hair pin bends. This road is part of State Highway 15. It is slightly less travelled as it is a slightly longer route from Mettupalayam to Ooty than the route via Coonoor, though as of 2012 the road condition is superior to the Coonoor Ghat road. It is also statistically less vulnerable to landslips. It is possible to divert from this route to Coonoor. <ref>There is a link from Aravenu to Bandishola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY9WalzFldU. Corridors in this area Jaccanaire slope to hulikkal durgam corridor This elephant corridor connects the Jaccanaire Slope reserve forest and Hulikkal Durgam Reserve Forest of Coimbatore Forest Division. The elephants from Sathyamanagalam Tiger Reserve moves to Southern part of Coimbatore forest division through the foot hills of highly undulated mountains and cross the corridor between the second hair-pin bend of Mettupalayam – Coonoor highway and Kallar village. The corridor is very narrow due to plantations and various man made developmental initiatives like establishment of Arecanut Plantations, Banana Plantations which are the crops dearer to the elephant. The details of Jaccanaire to Hulikkal Durgam corridor which is otherwise called as Kallar at Ghanda pallam corridor. It connects Sathyamanagalam Tiger Reserve and the Coimbatore Forest Division. The length of the corridor runs up to 7 kilometres and the width of the corridor extends up to 300 meters. The forest types prevalent in the corridor is Tropical Thorn and Dry Deciduous Forests which encompasses a total of 27 tree species which are sampled in 0.25 acre area spread. The dominant tree species available in the belt are Ficus benghalensis; Azadirachta indica; Albizia amara; Acacia nilotica and the Bamboo species. Because of the human invasion, most of the tree canopies were cut and fed to the livestock population by head loads and hence almost all these species are appearing pruned heavily. In this corridor, the elephant loving species like Bamboo are not well flourishing due to poor rainfall and unauthorized removal of clumps for the Basket making activities by the local residents and to the basket weavers located nearby. In this corridor, one could observe the threats to the elephants are the presence of Swami Sachidhanandha Jyothi Niketan School and the Presence of Black Thunder, the water theme park which are positioned across the corridor of the elephants which affects the migration of the elephants. Besides, these buildings and theme parks were provided with solar operated power fence and hence the elephants have been forced to move out of the scene. When it moves to alternate route in the slope, one could visualize the establishment of Arecanut plantations and Banana plantations which are once occupied in an unauthorized manner. The politically powered people were occupying these floors and thereby the elephants were unable to get a space for feeding and free moving

References <https://www.entomoljournal.com/archives/2019/vol7issue3/PartO/7-3-118-515.pdf>.