Bhubaneswar: As many as 115 spotted deers are being translocated to Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary from Sambalpur Zoo. The exercise is part of species augmentation at Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary.
According to the Forest Department press release, the translocation exercise aims at 1. Increasing spotted deer population in Debrigarh Sanctuary(prey augmentation in the sanctuary). The density of spotted deer is 353 sq. km. Sanctuary now ranges around 50/60 per sq. km followed by bison 40/50, sambar 30, and wild boar 60/70 per sq. km in Sanctuary. 2. To reduce excess spotted deer from Sambalpur Zoo to accommodate new animals in the Zoo.
A total of 115 spotted deer are to be translocated from the zoo to the sanctuary. Today from 3 am onwards, 12 have been translocated successfully to the Quarantine Enclosure at Debrigarh. Further, 12-16 in every batch will get shifted during dawn & dusk in phases. The Quarantine Enclosure is 1.2 hectares in area, with Saltlick, water pool, treatment care unit, CCTV cameras, and Blackflash cameras inside the enclosure. One emergency healthcare unit is also there. Machans have been created around Quarantine enclosures.
Deers will be in quarantine for around 3 to 4 weeks & then will be released into the wild only after they are acclimatised to the natural habitat of Debrigarh. The site of quarantine & release partially covers both grazing & browsing habitats- grassland & forest, as well as the adjoining Hirakud reservoir. This will help the deers get accustomed to grassland, terrain, forest & reservoir. Grassland management in that area has been done scientifically and 7 to 8 varieties of palatable grasses–Dicanthium, Heteropogon, Cloris, Vitiver, Cynodon, etc are present along with 10 to 12 browsable fodder varieties nutritious for herbivores.
The health condition of all the 115 spotted deer have been checked and all are healthy, without any disease and no tuberculosis infection traced in any animal. Centre for Wildlife Health, a certified institute of Bhubaneswar has done all necessary tests (blood & swabs) of the deers in this regard.
How Deers get transferred from zoo to Sanctuary – The method is called “Boma Capturing Technique” (started in Africa years back) – spotted deers are lured to enter a funnel shape enclosure (fenced from all sides by bamboo & green net) close to their zoo enclosure. The funnel is internally connected to the translocation vehicle ( customised locally by wildlife officials ) and supported with grass mats, gunny bags and opaque for animals. Selection cum loading into the vehicle continues simultaneously before transport. This process needs a cool and disturbance-free environment.
Translocation is a process to make animals wild from captive breeding smoothly and in a stable manner. Today 12 have been transferred to quarantine in the sanctuary (translocation by Boma method was taken up between 3 am to 5 am in the zoo today), 2nd phase transfer will take place today. Then subsequently within one month, 115 will be transferred.
