Mullaperiyar Dam
History
Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) has become a paragon of participatory biodiversity conservation. The fringe area communities of PTR act as a social fence around the park. This relationship between the park authorities was fostered through the India Eco-development project (IEDP) which started in PTR on December 29th, 1996 and continued upto June 2004. The major objectives of the IEDP, was to improve capacity of PA management, to conserve biodiversity and to minimize negative impacts of people on PA and vice versa by increasing collaboration of local people in the conservation effort. The major components of IEDP were, improved protected area management, village eco-development, nature education and training, research and monitoring. At the end of the project period, 72 eco-development committees were formed encompassing almost 40,000 people from the forest fringe area; negative dependency of these people on forest was almost reduced, poaching and wildlife crime rate was at its lowest, sandal smuggling and forest fires were controlled through participatory management regimes. In order to sustain the process of participatory management which has grown and evolved many folds beyond the project period, Periyar Foundation took birth on 27th July, 2004.