Chhattisgarh Forest Department has a reason to cheer as it has traced two herds of the endangered wild buffalo at a national park in the state raising hope to increase its population.
"With the inputs from local villagers, we were tracking wild buffaloes for the past several months in Indravati (national park in south Bastar) but we were not getting exact evidence of their presence. Due to LWE (Left Wing Extremism) activities in the region, it was tough to search thoroughly in the deep forests," Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Anup Kumar Shrivastava told PTI.
"But few weeks back our trackers spotted two herds of wild buffaloes numbering 10 to 12 animals in each," he said.
Wild buffalo is Chhattisgarh's state animal, known locally as 'ban bhainsa' and is similar to bison in appearance but is a different species. Said to be the predecessor of today's domestic buffaloes, it is very active in nature and considered more resistant to natural adversities.
The forest department is planning to translocate a female wild buffalo from the herds, spotted at Indravati national park in south Bastar, to Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary where the numbers of the species facing extinction are as low as nine, with only one female for mating and reproduction.
"In one of the herds, they have traced a calf and by that they we are concluding that certainly a female wild buffalo is there. We have told the forest officials to locate them accurately and if the number of females are two or three, we would be translocating at least one to Udanti area for further mating and progeny," Shrivastava said.
With a total area of about 2,799.08 kms, Indravati National Park is located in the Maoist-hit Bijapur district on the border of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
