Biligiriranga Hills

The Biligiriranga Hills, commonly called B R Hills, is a hill range situated in south-eastern Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu in South India. The area is called Biligiriranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary or simply BRT Wildlife Sanctuary.

The BR hills links the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats allowing animals to move between them and facilitating gene flow between populations of species in these areas. Thus, this sanctuary serves as an important biological bridge for the biota of the entire Deccan plateau.

For hundreds of years, this region has been the home for the semi-nomadic Soliga tribe. The forest regions of Yelandur, Chamrajanagar and Kollegal, including the hilly tracts and foothills of Biligirirangan and Male Mahadeshwara in the southern part of Karnataka, are inhabited by nearly twenty thousand Soliga tribal people. The Soligas inhabiting this range were nature worshippers originally, and revere a large Champaka tree (Michelia champaca), called Dodda Sampige in the local language.