Uttarakhand forest department is going to arm its ‘grossly’ ill-equipped five forest divisions spread across the western circle of the State forest department under whose jurisdiction the Terai landscape, rich with flora and fauna, falls with tranquilising guns to deal with increasing cases of man-animal conflicts.
Keeping in view the necessity of such modern equipments, we have placed orders to purchase five tranquilising guns from Denmark through a Madhya Pradesh-based firm which is authorised to procure such equipments, said Surendra Mehra, conservator of Forest, western circle, while talking to The Pioneer.
We have decided to purchase five such tranquilising guns initially for `20 lakh. Hopefully, delivery of these state of the art guns will be made soon, added Mehra.
There are five forest divisions spread across the western circle of the State forest department- Terai-east forest division,
Haldwani forest division, Terai-Central forest division, Ramnagar forest division and Tera-west forest division. So with the import of five tranquilsing guns, each of these aforesaid forest divisions will be armed with one tranquilising gun.
Presently, lack of basic safety equipments like tranquilising guns is a major concern for the foresters to meet the growing challenges of man-animal conflicts.
It may be recalled that after half a dozen villagers were injured by a prowling leopard on October 13, 2014 in Hanspur Khatta in Terai-east forest division’s Ransali range, the beast was later killed by an angry mob with the forest division concerned remaining devoid of a basic safety equipment like tranquilising gun at that time. Had the forest division concerned been equipped with basic resources like tranquilising gun the leopard could have been tranquilised and saved.
Further, interestingly, Terai-central forest division is still using ‘Gandhi Bandook’, a traditional gun, to take on giant animals like elephants in its area.
With ‘Gandhi Bandook’ proving inadequate to take on increasing incidents of man-animal conflict, tranquilising guns is a must, maintained the foresters of the Terai region.