The Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) is a field based conservation and research organisation situated inside the Agumbe Reserved Forest at

Agumbe Agumbe is a village situated in the Thirthahalli taluka of Shimoga district, Karnataka, India. It is nestled in the thickly forested Malenadu region of the Western Ghats mountain range. Owing to its high rainfall, it has received the epithet ...

in the central Western Ghats of southern India. The Agumbe Reserved Forests receives an annual rainfall in excess of and is at an elevation of about above sea level. It forms a part of the Malnad-Kodagu corridor, which also includes the Someshwara,

Mookambika Mookambika (, Kannada: ಶ್ರೀ ಮೂಕಾಂಬಿಕಾ) is a Hindu goddess, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess of Hinduism. She is regarded to be the form of shakti, the divine feminine energy, that represents creativ ...

Bhadra ''Bhadra''Feminine: sa, भद्रा, Bhadrā is a Sanskrit word meaning 'good', 'fortune' or 'auspicious'. It is also the name of many men, women and objects in Hindu mythology. Male Figures King of Chedi Bhadra was a king of Chedi Kingdom ...

, and

Sharavati Sharavati is a river which originates and flows entirely within the state of Karnataka in India. It is one of the few westward flowing rivers of India and a major part of the river basin lies in the Western Ghats. The famous Jog Falls, located ...

Wildlife Sanctuaries,

Kudremukh National Park Kudremukha(ಕುದುರೆ ಮುಖ) is a mountain range and name of a peak located in Chikkamagaluru district, in Karnataka, India. It is also the name of a small hill station iron ore mining town situated near the mountain, about 20 kilo ...

, and various other forest tracts and reserve forests around Kundapur, Shankaranarayana, Hosanagara, Sringeri, and Thirthahalli.

History

ARRS was founded in 2005, by leading Indian herpetologist

Romulus Whitaker Romulus Earl Whitaker (born 23 May 1943) is an American-Indian herpetologist, wildlife conservationist, and founder of the Madras Snake Park, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust (ANET), and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. In 2008, Whit ...

. Whitaker saw his very first king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) here in 1971. He was also extremely taken by the reverence the people in the region showed for snakes, which was a major factor that drove him to establish a research station in Agumbe (Karnataka ). The land is a revenue land was legally procured, the construction and activities are eco friendly and pose no disturbance to the wildlife. Agumbe Rain Forest Research Station

Activities

ARRS managed the world's first radio-telemetry project on the King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), which is also the first radio-telemetry study done on any snake in India. Insight gained from this ecological study is being put into practice into king cobra management in the region. ARRS researchers have witnessed various unique behaviors among the species including a male king cobra killing a possibly pregnant female, a rare behavior even among mammals. ARRS conducts and facilitates a wide variety of research projects, ranging from rainforest ecology, behavioral and population ecology, phenology, geoinformatics and socio economics. Apart from research, ARRS focuses on education and outreach in the local community, schools and colleges. A well-developed volunteer and research intern programme makes the research station an ideal location for those interested in field based research and conservation The research station encourages and provides facilities for graduate and PHD students to conduct projects.

References

External links

{{authority control Herpetology Research stations Research institutes in Karnataka 2005 establishments in Karnataka Education in Shimoga district Buildings and structures in Shimoga district Educational institutions established in 2005 Indian forest research institutes

History

Activities

See also

References

External links