Five rare Barasinghas (Swamp deer), found only in Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve, will be translocated to Van Vihar National Park here this month.
State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests - Wildlife (PCCF-Wildlife) Narendra Kumar told media persons on Sunday, “We are going to shift five Barasinghas from Kanha to Van Vihar in this month.”
Kumar further said the move was being taken to ensure that the Barasinghas did not become extinct in case of an outbreak of a disease at the Tiger Reserve spread over Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Right now, there were around 550 Barasinghas in Kanha Tiger Reserve. In 1967, the population of Barasinghas dipped to an all time low of 66.
Wildlife experts suspected that they fell prey to tigers and other carnivores due to their inability to enter deep forests as they have huge antlers. After this, forest officials tried to translocate them but the effort failed to bear fruit. The deer died before reaching their new home in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
Kanha Tiger Reserve director JS Chouhan said “A previous attempt to shift Barasinghas was made in early 1980s but it didn’t work. At that time, the tranquilising methodology and transporting was not as modernised as it was now.”
He said Barasinghas were found only in Kanha Tiger Reserve.
If this translocation effort is successful, then another bid to shift 50 more Barasinghas from Kanha to Satpura Tiger Reserve will be made, a senior forest official added.
Kanha is one of the very few places in the country where the swamp deer (Barasingha) is found and the proposed translocation is aimed at giving it a new home in Madhya Pradesh.
However, not agreeing with the claims of the Forest Department the wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said that a similar bid to translocate the Barasingha was made in 2011 but it was put on hold following a large number of casualties in re-establishing blackbuck to the premier reserve.