One female adult bison was found dead in National Park Betla taking the total casualty of bison to three in three weeks beginning April 29 when there was the first death of a female bison followed by another death of a male bison on May 4 and this latest death of female bison on May 17.
Head of the forest force ( HoFF) cum principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) Shashi Nandkeolyar confirming the third death of the bison in this park said they are making all out efforts to keep our bison herd safe but casualty strikes which points towards some deadly bacterial infection gripping the park.
He said it is yet to be known as to what this bacterial infection is and how it has so gripped the bison here.
HoFF said the latest one had acute respiratory distress wherein the team that was following it had noticed this female bison was struggling for breathing as it was opening mouth frequently perhaps to inhale oxygen but its lungs failed it.
Nandkeolyar said this female bison had one more highly worrisome symptom and it was blood coming out from its one nostril.
Nandkeolyar said from no other orifice there was any such discharge or oozing of blood except from one nostril and this symptom was not found in two previous death of the bison here.
Sources said the other two bison which died had severe respiratory trouble and their lungs were found ‘marbled’ by a noted vet surgeon C Deb.
D S Srivastava secretary Nature Conservation Society said “This third death of the bison has shaken all wild life lovers. What is this happening? Where is the field director Y K Das?”
Srivastava said, “ I have a strong conviction that it is a very difficult time for Betla bison and I and like many other wild life lovers are ready to be a part of save bison fight” but adding officers in PTR must come out clean about things prevailing in Betla. Charging the present dispensation of the PTR with spending more time in hiding the ground reality from top bosses of the forest and environment department down to media persons Srivastava said, “It is nearly three weeks when the first death of the bison occurred and no one knows the fate of test report of the samples of the carcasses.”
Srivastava said test report ought to have been procured on an emergency scale as any more spread of it will threaten the whole of bison here, which the last countable species is left in Jharkhand.
HoFF said they are planning to send in two IFS officers V S Dubey and Abhishek Kumar to Betla to assist the team there in this fight for bison there. Nandkeolyar said these two officers have bachelor of veterinary science degree to their credit.
HoFF said we are also trying to depute Premjit Anand a senior officer too here who has had his stint here in PTR. Sources said Sangam Lahiri too is to be roped in.
Bison roaming area is not beyond 3 Km in Betla and this area is to be contained but HoFF said isolating or quarantining a bison is too tough and difficult as for bison there is no standard SoP for it.
Cattle chaos in the park has been curbed to a great extent and now our thrust is to identify if any one more is leading any incubated life said Nandkeolyar.
Water melons with medication we are trying to use for bison if at all it eats as then it will be a great prophylactic measure said HoFF.
Two senior vets are being sent to Betla for the postmortem of this female one for which HoFF said, “I have asked the team to preserve samples of not only lungs but of bronchial system, liver, heart etc too for a wider analysis of it.”