For the first time, this year, the forest division of the Delhi Government will conduct the census of animals in Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary after declaring it “major green lung” and protected area in 1991.
Chief Warden Delhi wildlife division AK Shukla told The Pioneer that they will start census in October of this year. “The ideal habitat with the existence of jheels, Asola is a natural wildlife home for different species in the South district area of National Capital Territory (NCT),” said Shukla.
“There are some indication of the existence of Striped Hyena, Python, Nilgai and some special species in this area,” he added.
Hundreds of insects and mammals like — Nilgai, the largest antelope, Porcupines, Civets, Jungle cats were found. Besides these animals, many species of butterflies could be seen moving around. Officials of are enthused that the notified sanctuary has at least nine different species of animals including special categories of reptiles.
According to Shukla, currently the sanctuary is under edifice and soon will host wildlife enthusiasts with the diverse species in and around the Asola Bhatti sanctuary area.
To make this project successful, the forest department has formed a team of 30 forest guards, who are undergoing training.
“In addition, we are also trying to get experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun. The entire exercise is expected to take about four months. We will install high-definition camera traps and set up pug mark pads to determine the wildlife population,” he added.
The sanctuary has 18,137 indigenous plants under 30 different species. The sanctuary is spread over 5,000 acre over the southern ridge of the city.
Wildlife experts said at present there are some grass lands here and a large number of monkeys, as all those caught from the city are trans located to the sanctuary. Since the sanctuary is close to human habitation, wild animals cross over from Haryana get and get caught in the urban milieu.