Conservation through Conversation:A Collaborative Corridor Restoration Initiative in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India

Wildlife corridors are critical in maintaining ecological processes and wildlife management, but they are fragmented and degraded due to various land-use practices. It is crucial to restore wildlife corridors through participation of communities/institutions of the landscape. Ironically, however, most of the proposed conservation plans are devoid of them in conservation and policy-making. Therefore, valuing the onus of people and their inputs to restore and manage wildlife corridors would be a practical strategy. We are addressing this ‘restoration initiative’ in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India by integrating knowledge from social and ecological sciences. The preliminary result indicates that, people and institutions from the landscape are willing to support the restoration efforts. This initiative would emerge as one of the successful, actionoriented and policy-driven projects in this landscape.