Amidst tight security arrangements, tribals managed to kill two wild boars and a barking deer while celebrating Sendra at Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary on Monday. A sizeable number of tribal had climbed the Dalma with their the traditional weapons like bows, arrows, spears and choppers. Hundreds of tribals started converging at the sprawling 192 sr km sanctuary since late Sunday evening. They killed the animals after searching the jungles for hours together.
On confirmed reports suggest that there were some group of tribal who successfully killed wild boars and some other mammals during the day-long Bishu Shikar festival.
Interestingly, there were some other Bishu Shikar revellers were seen carrying some chicks on their palms as a symbol of hunting festival while returning from Dalma.
Dalma range officer RP Singh claimed not a single animal has been killed. “Though we have seized nets and traps from the sanctuary but no animal has been killed,” he said, adding tight security arrangements had been made to prevent hunting and killing of animals.
The State forest department had earmarked 11 check points and 15 patrol routes as part of security measures for Sendra. A total of 51 divisional forest officers (DFO), assistant conservator of forests (ACF) and range officers from different forest divisions manned the sanctuary from yesterday itself.
Police constables from East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan were also deployed for preventing tribals from entering the sanctuary will non-traditional weapons. Moreover, divisional railway managers of Chakradharpur and Adra divisions had been asked to deploy magistrates to prevent tribals from boarding trains with weapons.
It may be mentioned that the forest department, a two weeks before the festival, had launched an awareness campaign among tribals, following which they had not only assured to protect the animals, but promised to convince others not to kill animals during the annual ritual.
Nevertheless, Dalma Buru Sendra Samity(DBSS) has said that inspite of the large police and forest officials presence the tribals have celebrated the festival in a traditional manner but in a limited way.
“No denying the fact that police and forest officials large presence foiled our plans to some extent as far as celebrating the Sendra festival in traditional manner is concerned. But still we managed to hunt a dear in the dense forest of Dalma,” claimed a functionary of DBSS.