In a first in the country, the Tamil Nadu government on October 12 notified the Kaduvur slender loris sanctuary covering 11,806 hectares in Karur and Dindigul districts.
Key points
- The State government identified forest areas measuring 11,800 hectares in Karur and Dindigul districts.
- The sanctuary will cover Vedasandur, Dindigul East and Natham taluks in Dindigul district and Kadavur taluk in Karur district.
- Earlier the State government had also notified India’s first Dugong Conservation Reserve in the Palk Bay, Kazhuveli bird sanctuary in Villupuram, Nanjarayan Tank birds sanctuary in Tiruppur and the State’s fifth elephant reserve at Agasthyamalai in Tirunelveli.
About Slender lorises
- Slender lorises are commonly found in the tropical scrub and deciduous forests as well as the dense hedgerow plantations bordering farmlands of Southern India and Sri Lanka.
- The Slender Loris is a small nocturnal primate mammals.
- They are arboreal as they spend most of their life on trees.
- Their most prominent feature is the pair of two large, closely set, brown eyes. Gestation is 166-169 days.
- The females give birth to normally one and rarely two infants at one time. The mother carries the infants constantly during the first few weeks after birth. They live between 12-15 years.
- The species acts as a biological predator of pests in agricultural crops and benefits farmers.
- Listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), slender loris has a wide range of ecological roles in the terrestrial ecosystem.
