Tribal community dependence on Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu

The study was conducted to measure the extent of forest dependency of the tribal community in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu. Relative forest income was computed to assess the income contribution of forest to the tribal households. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyse the factors determining the forest dependency of tribal households. The results indicated that the relative forest income shared the major proportion of tribal households’ total income of about 40.08 per cent and low income people depended more on forest for their livelihood than moderate and high income group of about 59.01 per cent. Age, family size, livestock holdings, annual income, distance to forest etc were found to be the influencing factors of determinants in forest dependency. These results showed that poverty was interlinked with the environmental degradation.