With the shifting of five “Gaurs” (Indian Bison) from Kanha to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on Saturday, the first phase of the relocation exercise aimed at repopulating Bandhavgarh with this grand and endangered specie has been completed.
The relocation exercise had suffered an initial jolt as a Gaur died after it had been tranquilised.
Madhya Pradesh principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) H.S. Pabla told this newspaper on Sunday that the target is to translocate 20 Gaurs to Bandhavgarh in the next few days. Five or six of these would be males, he said, adding that along with this exercise, they plan to simultaneously relocate a pair of Gaur to the Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal.
Dr Pabla said that specially designed trucks are being used for transporting the animals and ramps had been made in advance at Kanha and Bandhavgarh. The animals would be kept under observation in a separate enclosure before being released into the wild.
Gaur — the largest bovine in the world — requires plenty of grazing space, and with shrinking buffer zones and pressure of minor forest produce collection even inside protected areas, these animals have been facing tremendous biotic pressure.
There were rare sightings in 1995 and 1996 and the last of the Gaurs was spotted in Bandhavgarh in 1998. In order to repopulate this habitat, the state forest department has been working on the relocation project with Wildlife Institute of India and Conservation Corporation of Africa (CC of Africa), now known as “&Beyond”, for the last four years.