Forest patrol in Betla range has been stepped up with the advent of the winter. Sources said the poachers and the bird killers get activated in the winter because of adverse climatic situations in which level guard gets down.
The Betla range is the shortest in the square kilometer of all the 8 ranges of the Palamu tiger reserve. But despite it being the shortest one, this Betla range has enormous challenges, said sources.
As per official record of the PTR, Betla range is spread over 48.49 sq km while the largest range is Bareysarn which has 219.30 sq km. Mahuadarn range has 170.91 sq km, Kutku range 161.93 sq km, Garu range west 164.77, Garu range east 175.91 sq kim, Chhipadohar range east 171.49 sq km and Chhipadohar west194 sq km.
Deputy director North division of PTR, Kumar Ashish said less than half of the range of Betla is open and accessible to the tourists and our forest patrol on road number 6 is far more challenging here in the Betla National Park.
About road number 6 patrol, Ashish said this end of the park meets with two densely populated villages, Muru and Kuchila, and incidentally this end is on the edge of the park and hence officials need to intensify patrol here.
Ashish said, “Entry of buffaloes owned by farmers has been considerably contained. Due to intense patrol the farmers are finding it hard to push in their buffaloes in the park now which leaves enough space, food and water for our bison and other herbivores.”
Sources said many tourists in the past here had begun to call Betla National park as Buffalo National Park because of the abundance of buffaloes loitering inside the park but now this image has been shed off.
D S Srivastava, an environmentalist, said the park’s herbivores detest buffaloes as when buffaloes enter in any water body or water trough, they leave a stink of their body in it which is irksome to wild life.
Srivastava has also a note of caution when he said outside animals if let in the park are dangerous from the point of view of diseases that they may be carrying and exposing the park’s wildlife to it as well.
Ashish said “We are all the more cautious in the park as here our park is blessed with five new born bison. Four calves of bison were born very recently while one born earlier is growing fast.”
Ashish said “This is the first calendar year when there is this addition value in the population of the bison so far. We all wish them to be luckier as in April May this year we lost three adult bison in quick succession.”