The elephant calf which died recently has been declared to have met natural death and there is no question on it. However, even it could have died an unnatural death, we had to rely upon the findings of veterinary doctor we have for the purpose, which has never been a specialist wild life expert doctor,” had observed a senior official of Palamu Tiger Reserve region last week.
From Elephants to barking deer and panthers to neelgai, Jharkhand has been blessed with one of the richest wildlife diversities in country. But the fact is that the State is seriously suffering with lack of wildlife expert veterinary doctors, and experts admit it.
“It is true that most of the wildlife sanctuaries in State don’t have specialist wildlife doctors in literal terms. There are veterinary doctors who are trained to treat different animals according to their family classes, like a cat and a tiger comes from same family, hence their physiology and types of disease they are prone to are same. But being domestic animal, a cat is not as prone to diverse diseases as a tiger being a wild animal is prone to. Even treatment type and nature might differ according to the situations animals might be,” said College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry Dean under Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) Rl Prasad on Sunday.
He added that such specialized studies under higher courses were available in National Veterinary Research Institute. “Wildlife experts in State and we at BAU are also pushing the idea of starting such specialized courses here and it may be a reality in near future too. But as of now, we are at a loss,” added Prasad.