Two leopards and three hyenas are in and around Betla National Park of Palamu tiger reserve. The PTR officials have sounded caution to tourists not to take any walk small or big in the National Park Betla with children.
Field Director, PTR, Mohan Lal said, “We have evidences of at least two leopards and three hyenas loitering around National Park Betla and hence my advice to our esteemed tourists is that they should be more vigilant and cautious about children with them. Hyenas are most notorious and have history of lifting children”.
“I saw three hyenas just a few days ago here in the park. A leopard has been camera trapped tearing apart our chital of PTR for food. The leftover prey of leopards is relished by hyenas,” he said.
Sources said as this is tourist season and as such tourists flock at Betla with small children who want to run in the park which may not be any safe keeping in view the loitering of these two carnivores.
Leopards are preying chitals of PTR in this park but elsewhere in PTR leopards are preying goats. Goat killing by wild life is to be compensated with money said Lal.
Lal said, “I have been told that so far there is no history of leopard mauling any human being here but one needs to be cautious in jungles”.
To a question that leopards are around but no tiger in the whole of PTR including this National Park Lal said, “This is true.
There is no evidence as such to prove the presence of tigers here in the PTR since April where I was told camera had trapped the tiger last here and now it is almost 8 months there is nothing to suggest its presence here like scat, pug marks, prey, roaring, scratch marks on trees neither any camera numbering more than 450 in PTR has any capture of image of tiger in its screen etc.”
“Erstwhile officials of PTR thumb up that tigers were transient here and hence their residency is changeable but I wonder where after all they have gone from here,” said Lal who declined to make any comment on his predecessors.
Sources said PTR has a coterie of so called environmentalists who took side with just one top official of the PTR most blatantly and unabashedly over the issue of no evidence of presence of tigers by singing in chorus and trumpeting a wishful slogan that tigers will return to PTR only to serve their own interests and thus they caused more harm to PTR putting a blind eye as to the fate of tigers of PTR.
Sources said PTR is grappling with one more ticklish issue. It is the issue of release of sambhar here from Bareysarn based sambhar soft release centre where are about a dozen adult sambhars which canbe released into thewild and untamed PTR.
Lal said, “Our hands are tied. We cannot release sambhar from here into PTR jungle. The NTCA forbids any release of captive animal in tiger reserve. The sambhars are to be stationed only in this soft release centre.”
Reminded that this soft release centre of sambhar was set up with the sole intention to increase prey base of carnivores here but with restrictions so coming on sambhars’ release from here come as a shock to prey count Lal said, “I do not know why this aspect was overlooked when this soft release centre was so set up here.
Sambhars are already translocated here from Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park Ormanjhi Ranchi and now they are just residents here where PTR will have to feed them as they cannot go in the jungles.”
