Wildlife Sanctuary

The wildlife angle of your tour

While talking about Tourist places in Orissa, Hirakud is an important destination. The best part about visiting Hirakud, are the adjoining places that you can visit. Wildlife sanctuaries in India are established by the IUCN category. India has almost 515 wild life sanctuaries, of which close to 18 or 19 contribute to tourist places in Orissa. The states rich greenery, fertile land, river flow and terrain contribute to the maintenance of these wild life sanctuaries. While Hirakud dam was being planned a lot of resettlement was done. People vacated some places and inhabited others.

Hence the adjoining areas of Hirakud are blessed to develop wild life on their own. There are various sanctuaries available to be visited.

Why sanctuaries are needed?

The wild life sanctuaries are a step towards protection and promotion of wild life. They are an essential part of our ecosystem.‘Every creation of god has a motive to be on this earth’.The immense growth of human race and the development in the life style has challenged the existence of the wild life. They are important part of the never ending food chain. And hence making sanctuaries is an important task. Here wild life (animals, birds and aquatic creatures) live on their own natural environment. Huge forests are left undisturbed for this wild life to live.

Debrigarh Sanctuary-

The Debrigarh sanctuary is in the Bargarh district of Orissa. It is an important place amongst the tourist places in Orissa. Debrigarh is protected on the east and north direction by the Hirakud reservoir.Here the important insight is that this sanctuary supports both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Bio-diversity is the appropriate word to describe the habitats of Debrigarh.

The flora and fauna of this sanctuary supports many plants that have medicinal value and are conserved.The state of Orissa is home to all natural habitats. As discussed earlier the biodiversity of the state is rich.

Inhabitants of the Debrigarh sanctuary.   

Flora in this sanctuary includes

• Sal – an important kind of wood for making furniture.
• Sandalwood- an auspicious wood that has fragrance and is used for devotional and medicinal use.
• Neem – A tree of high medicinal usage. Is used for fights against infection.
• Arjuna- A tree specific to India. Every part is used for medicinal use.
• Acacia- a tree that has medicinal values and is also eatable at some parts of the world.
• Casuarina- The wood of this tree has good firewood properties. They are used for fencing as well.

Fauna in this sanctuary includes

• Tigers
• Elephants
• Leopards
• Bisons