Thirty kilometres from Chikmagalur in the southern Indian state of Karnataka lies the Bhadra tiger reserve. Here, the towering ridges of the western ghats wrap around a gently undulating landscape dissected by scores of streams and draped in the finest moist deciduous forests anywhere. These forests harbour on impressive assemblage of wildlife from the large and imposing elephant and tiger to a dazzlilng array of lesser marvels including birds, lizards, snakes, frogs, and insects. Also scattered across Bhadra's forested landscape are sixteen hamlets.
