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News of Jan
5, 2007
Trucks, Boats, and Palanquins for
Buffaloes Travel
By Jadav Kakoty
New Delhi
Jan 5
They may be animals but they got royal treatment as they traveled
more than 300 km to their new home -- a wildlife sanctuary in Assam.
The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) shifted two buffalo calves, an
endangered animal, from the Kaziranga National Park in Golaghat
district to deep inside the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Tinsukia
district.
Wild buffaloes are under threat in India due to genetic
contamination by hybridization with domestic buffaloes. The entire
exercise of moving them from one place to another took two days,
with the animals traveling in two trucks, two boats and two
palanquins to reach their destination.
"We have translocated many animals including rhinos and elephants,
but this was the most complicated exercise," said veterinarian Anjan
Talukdar.
The calves, named B1 and B2, were raised at the Centre for Wildlife
Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) adjacent to the Kaziranga
National
Park.
B1, a male, came to CWRC as a five-day old calf Aug 8, 2002. It had
been
orphaned after being swept away in the floods. B2, also a male, was
brought
in Nov 19, 2003 after being found abandoned in the forest.
B1, which weighs a ton, and B2, which is about 700 kg, were sedated
around 5
p.m. Dec 25 and loaded on to separate mini trucks.
"We lined the sides with banana trunks and put a mixture of mud and
straw on
the floor, to protect them from injuries," said Rathin Burman,
manager of
WTI's Wild Rescue division and in charge of the operation.
"It was important that their journey, which was pretty long, was
comfortable
and peaceful. We decided to transport them at night when the traffic
was
sparse," he said.
After loading them and waiting to check if the animals were stable,
the
trucks moved around 7.30 p.m. on their 310-km journey.
However, just two hours later, Talukdar found to his horror that the
calves
were waking up.
"This was certainly not on the script and we had to give them
additional
sedation so that they did not wake up disoriented and injure
themselves,"
Burman said in a statement.
Suitably fortified, the caravan moved at a slow pace to reach the
Saikhowa
range Dec 26 morning.
"From here the calves were loaded on to a boat at a makeshift jetty
made for
them. But before that they had to be put into boxes, which was quite
a
difficult task," Talukdar said. The boat journey lasted about 45
minutes.
"And from here they went like medieval princesses in palanquins
carried by
30 people each through a three-kilometer slushy and muddy path that
took
over three hours to cover," Burman said.
By 2 p.m. they had arrived at the special enclosure created for them
on a
river island in Kalia camp of Saikhowa range. It had been prepared
more than
a month in advance and had a lush cover of grass.
There is an anti-poaching camp there as well with a watch tower for
a round
the clock vigil. The WTI project team has also set up a field
station here
and would also stay on the island.
"After the reversal drugs were administered, B1 was the first to
show signs
of waking up and trying to stand up. B2 was still very drowsy around
4.30
p.m. But by late evening both had revived and started grazing
hungrily,
which was a very happy sign and showed that they had completely
recovered
and were beginning to accept the new environment," said Prabal
Sarkar, WTI's
senior field officer and in charge of the re-introduction project.
"The buffaloes will remain in their enclosure for at least two
years, to get
habituated to their new surroundings before their ultimate release
into the
wild," he added.
IANS
News of Jan
5, 2007
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