Study Region

The Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Ambegaon tehsil in Pune district in Western Maharashtra. It covers an area of 130.78 km² (Maharashtra Forest Department website) (see figure 1) and was notified as a wildlife sanctuary in 1985. It is situated in the Western Ghats, an UNESCO World Heritage Site and a biodiversity “hotspot” defined as areas where “exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat ” by Myers et al. 2000. The Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary is home to several endemic and endangered flora and fauna. Significantly, the state animal of Maharashtra, the Ratufa indica elphistonii, a sub-species of the Indian Giant squirrel is found here. Additionally fourteen sacred groves of cultural, historic, and religious significance are in the sanctuary. The sanctuary is named after the Bhimashankar temple, one of twelve jyotirlingas shiva temples in India, and sees a large number of pilgrims (Kalpavriksh website).  

Over the last two decades considerable changes in the forest cover have been observed in the Western Ghats (Panigrahy et al. 2010). The region around Bhimashankar Wildlife sanctuary has also witnessed these changes which are thought to have been caused due to increased large scale development projects, development to cater to the large influx of religious and other tourists, and the dependence of local indigenous tribal communities on the natural resources of the sanctuary. One example of large scale development projects that may have contributed to a loss of forest cover in the region is the Andhra Lake Wind Powered Project promoted by ENERCON (India). The company has been accused of violating environmental norms and activists allege that they are responsible for the felling approximately of 300,000 trees to build an approach road through the forests to the windmill site (Down to Earth).

Figure 1.  Map of India showing the location of our study area. The outline of the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary is marked in the image on the right.