Tumakuru's Environment & Heritage Issues

I. Introduction to Devarayanadurga State Forest (DDSF): Devarayanadurga state forest was the first state forest to be declared in Karnataka (in 1907). It has been enjoying some sort of legal protection by the Government since as early as 1853. II. Vegetation/ Flora of Devarayanadurga forests: It is about 42.27 Sq km large and is a patch of mainly Dry Deciduous forest inter-spread with large patches of scrub and a few degraded moist deciduous forests in its valleys. The forest is degraded towards periphery. For a forest which is just about 6 km from Tumkur city, it is remarkably well preserved and wild. Both the Forest Department and the locals of Tumkur have special attachment towards this forest. It is important to note that there are no villages inside the forest here and there are many chunks of hilly forests adjoining Devarayana Durga state forest (DDSF) roughly about 20 sq. km, which although unprotected have a fairly good tree cover like the one at Ranthambore Nation