At a time when various theories are being offered for depletion of prey base in Sunderbans and consequent man-tiger conflict, the Forest Department is set to start a novel experiment of setting up satellite breeding centres of prey species in the mangrove forests.
Accordingly, prey animals of big cats would be picked up from the local environs itself and will raised in their natural habitat in these centres which would then be released into the wild.
Such an effort, the first-of-its-kind in the country, has been hailed by the experts. According to them, effective prey base management is one of the first requisites for habitat management and reduction of man-animal conflict. A recent study of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had shown that the density of prey base in the mangrove habitat was very low and a cause for concern.
Based on boat transect study along the creeks of Sajnekhali and west of STR, WII had estimated the presence of only 13.3 chitals per square kilometres. This data when extrapolated over the entire 2,500 square km of STR area, comes to just 30,000 spotted deer in the mangroves, which is very low considering the area.
“We are trying to take some concrete measures to improve the situation after discussions with senior officials from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Environment Ministry, said Soumitra Dasgupta, Field Director. Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR). “Earlier, we had tried to introduce prey animals by importing it from other wildlife sanctuaries and parks, but it did not succeed as they could not acclimatise to the existing conditions in the tidal mangrove habitat,” he added.
This time calves of spotted deer, wild boars etc will be taken from the STR itself and reared in these captive breeding centres. On an experimental two such breeding centres will come up at Baghna and Dobanki initially. Depending on the results, more will come up in the mangrove forests spread over an area of more than 2,500 square kilometres, informed Dasgupta.