Visual feast of wildlife during machaan census in Tadoba
| Date :20-May-2019 |
A sloth bear at an artificial saucer-shaped waterhole in Melghat Tiger Reserve that was sighted by the participants in Nisarganubhav event on Saturday night. (right) A herd of deer was sighted while grazing in Melghat Tiger Reserve during the exercise.
By Ramesh Marulkar:
Volunteers had a feast of wide range of wildlife in the full moon night on Buddha Pournima during Nisarganubhav (machaan census) exercise in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. As many as 76 volunteers sitting with 38 forest guards on steel structures erected at the waterholes in buffer zone of the park participated in the exercise from Saturday evening till Sunday morning. The nature lovers had a divine experience to sight different wild animals under the full moon light as the visibility was clear. Some were lucky to have sighted as many as 20 tigers, including 11 at Palasgaon and remaining at Moharli and Khadsangi spots.
Some participants at Shivani, Khadsangi and Moharli sighted three leopards at the waterholes. N R Praveen, Field Director, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, said that all the volunteers sighted in all 1,062 different species of wild animals such tigers, leopards, deer, blue bulls, bisons, barking deer, wild dogs, sloth bears, porcupines, foxes civet cats, jungle cats, rabbits, mongoos, chausinga, sambar, monkeys and others. The sizeable number of animals sighted include: 146 bisons, 226 wild boars, 62 sloth-bears, 80 spotted deer, 38 barking deer and 143 sambar. Overall, the exercise proved to be successful, he added. When contacted G Guruprasad, Deputy Director, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (Buffer), said that that the management had erected 50 steel structures but in all 114 persons participated by sitting on 38 structures in the buffer zone. The curious participants could not take photographs on cellphones due to the management’s ban inside the park, he added.
Forest Department holds Nisarganubhav programme every year on Buddha Pournima to get an idea of the status of wild animals. It organised this exercise at different tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries in Vidarbha and received an encouraging response from the young nature lovers. Similarly, the volunteers participating in the exercise in Melghat Tiger Reserve had also a thrilling experience when they had a direct sighting of ten tigers and heard roaring class from other six tigers at different waterholes. The number of sighting of as many as 29 leopards was remarkably encouraging for them. Last year, the number of leopard sighting was only 12 during the similar exercise. M S Reddy, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Melghat Tiger Reserve, on Sunday, said that the number of wild animals seen during this exercise was very high if compared to last year’s experience. Participants sighted 558 bisons this time as against the figure of 209 last year.
The other comparative figures are: Wild boars - 1074 as against last year’s 162, Sambar - 668 (337), Spotted deer - 325 (128), Blue bulls - 419 (60), Langur - 984 (152), Ratel - 18 (2), Wild dogs - 132 (47), Sloth bears - 238 (163), Barking deer - 286 (143), Porcupines - 45 (11), Four-horned Antelopes - 39 (28), Leopards - 33 (12), Tiger - 16 (16), Civet cats - 79 (0), Hyena - 31(1), Pangolin - 2 (1) and others. The management erected a total of 446 wooden structures at different waterholes in the park while 411 volunteers took part in the exercise, Reddy added. The volunteers participating in this exercise at Katepurna, Dnyanganga and Karanja Sohol Wildlife Sanctuaries also sighted different wild animals, except for tiger, bison and Jackal.
The lucky participants saw only two leopards. The numbers of animals sighted during this machaan census included: Wild boars - 488, Blue bulls - 199, Black bucks - 108, Sloth-bears - 11, Sambar - 25, Spotted deer - 58, Porcupines - 6 and others. Akola Wildlife Division erected 40 wooden structures in the above three sanctuaries while 52 nature-lovers took part in the event. Moreover, the volunteers taking part in the event at Pench Tiger Reserve also sighted tigers, especially in Khursapar and other wild animals during the exercise.