WILD ANIMAL POPULATION FALLS FAST IN B’NGIR FORESTS Friday, 15 April 2016 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

WILD ANIMAL POPULATION FALLS FAST IN B’NGIR FORESTS

Friday, 15 April 2016 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

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Even as the Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger began on April 13 in New Delhi and tiger population in India having risen to 2,226 from 1,411 in 2006, yet in Bolangir district, the Royal Bengal Tiger has virtually vanished from the forest, much to the dismay of the animal lovers.

According to sources, in 2014 wildlife census, two tiger pugmarks were detected in Jamjharan village near Jamut village in Gudvela block bordering Kalahandi district.

However, this year not a single pug mark of Royal  Bengal Tiger (RBT) was detected. Moreover in 2014 animal census, 11 leopards were detected. By contrast, this time only six were detected in Bolangir district, according to sources.

Most of the leopards are staying at Badmal reserve forest but occasionally they stray out.

Although officially there are 28 elephants in the district, most of the elephants stay in Barpahad reserve forest in Sonepur district and they move inside the  villages of Lousingha ,Agalpur and Gaikhai Minor irrigation project near Salebhata and cause damage to paddy field and other house and property.

In the  Harishankar area, elephants from Padampur area stray out as they get plenty of food near village of Gandhmardan. These elephants stay there for days and then return to Padampur area before causing large scale damages.

However, the moot point is that not a single  elephant stays in four blocks namely Bolangir, Puintala  Deogaon and Patnagarh forest by now, indicating loss of habitat.

There are 27 sloth bears and their number is also coming down. Worse, Indian Bison has totally vanished from forest of Bolangir.

Most of the animals are finding conducive atmosphere in the sanctuary of Sunabeda forest and in Kalahandi, rather than in Bolangit, and hence, it is supposed that they might have migrated there.

With not a single Royal Bengal Tiger in the forest of Bolangir and dwindling of the wildlife in general, Bolangir forests are no more suitable for the wild creatures. Unless concrete measures are taken immediately, days are not far when Bolangir will be totally devoid of wild animals.