Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary is situated around the Dalma Hills. Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary is a much larger area starting from Chandil to 40 km east. The sanctuary covers around 195 km2.
It is about 100 km from the capital city Ranchi, and 15 km from the steel city Jamshedpur. The wildlife sanctuary runs parallel to the NH-18 with hills as high as 915 m from sea level. Dalma Sanctuary is spread over 193 km2 of forests of East Singhbhum and Saraikela Kharsawan districts of the state of Jharkhand. The forests of Dalma come under the category "Dry peninsular Sal" and "Northern Dry Mixed Deciduous Forest". Most part of Dalma forests shed leaves in the summer and attains its full bloom at the onset of monsoon.
Flora
The forest cover is denuded up to 90% because of selective pilferage by timber mafia over many years thereby creating good conditions for animal inhabitants here .[3]
During a waterhole census carried out in Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary on 21 and 22 May 2022 at 43 waterholes, 66 Asian elephants were spotted; the number wild bears has gone up to 19 this year from last year's 13, wild boars to 162 from 152, porcupines to 79 from 63, langurs to 40 from 38, monkeys to 552 from 496, reed squirrels to 45 from 39, peacocks to 120 from 53, rabbits to 24 from 18, snakes to 13 from 4, jackals to 9 from 3 and jungle fowls going up to 137 this year from 71 last year.[4]
