Census to start soon after 12 years

Abohar : The much-awaited census of black buck, blue bull and Sambar is likely to start in a week or so in the Abohar black buck sanctuary. The sanctuary is spread over 13 villages of this subdivision that are dominated by the members of the Bishnoi community, known for its exemplary passion to protect environment and animals. The sanctuary, which covers an area of 180.5 square km and is one of its kinds in the world, is also considered as the only place in the country where black bucks are found in large numbers. The last census in Asia’s largest open black buck sanctuary here was held in 1998. Though the next census should have been conducted in 2003 and then in 2008, it could not be carried out due to paucity of funds with the state Wildlife Department coupled with acute shortage of staff.

“We have engaged volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) from different schools and colleges of this region to assist employees of the Wildlife Department to conduct the census (survey) of black bucks, blue bull (Neel Gai) and Sambar in the sanctuary within about 10 days,” said Sanjeev Tiwari, divisional forest officer (wildlife), Ferozepur. About 30 staff members of the Wildlife Department, who had been deployed at the Harike wetland bird sanctuary, will be pressed into service to carry out the census within a short period.  It is learnt that during the last census, it was found that the number of black bucks in the open sanctuary was around 3,000. Though incidents of hunting of black bucks and blue bulls by hunters had come down significantly, these protected animals were being killed by stray dogs frequently.

Due to the menace of stray dogs and reduction of barren land for their habitat, the migration of black buck, blue bull and Sambar to the neighbouring Rajasthan had also started taking place in the past two years. Meanwhile, Sanjeev Godara, member, Punjab State Wildlife Board, demanded that the Central government must give enough funds to erect fencing alongside the roads crisscrossing the sanctuary area to save the animals from being killed in road accidents.