Almost a decade after the first ever census of wildlife in the city’s Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, the UT Department of Forest & Wildlife is now gearing up to carry out the census exercise for the second time in 2020.
Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary spreads over an area of about 26 sq km in the catchment area of the Sukhna Lake. The first census exercise in the Sanctuary was conducted in the year 2010.
“The Department has planned to carry out the second census of wildlife in the Sanctuary during next year. The census is likely to be conducted in the month of February,” UT Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Debendra Dalai said while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “Teams of experts will be constituted for the census. Earlier, a three-day census exercise was conducted in 2010 in the Sanctuary. After that, counting exercises were conducted but without the methodology being used during census exercise.”
For the wildlife census in 2010, the UT Department of Forest & Wildlife had roped in experts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) at Dehradun, leading environmentalists, students from Panjab University’s Biology and Zoology Department and representatives from NGOs.
During the compilation of census report, direct evidences including the animals and mammals spotted in the area and indirect evidences like foot-prints and animal’s body waste is being considered to authenticate the presence of various inhabitants in the Sanctuary.
The Chief Wildlife Warden further said, “The resident mammalian species in the Sanctuary are sambar, spotted deer (chital), pangolin (anteater), wild boar, jackal among others. Leopards are also a frequent visitor in the Sanctuary.”
“At present, there are two camera traps in the Sanctuary. We are planning to install three more camera traps around water bodies in the Sanctuary by the end of this year. This will also help in spotting the animals especially Leopards,” he added.
As per the first census report compiled by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 2010, the total abundance estimation of Sambar in sanctuary was between 1000 to 1200 and of Peafowl was between 900 to 1100. As per the average, the group size of Sambhar in Sanctuary was reported between 3.39 to 10.07, which was higher than any other protected area in the country.
A total of 10 teams constituted for the census had encountered 9 species of mammals and 65 species of birds. A team had also encountered indirect evidences (pugmarks) of the presence of Leopard in the Sanctuary.
The resident mammalian species spotted were sambar, spotted deer (chital), pangolin (anteater), wild boar, jackal, small Indian civet, jungle cat, porcupine, Hanuman langur, rhesus monkey, Indian hare, common mongoose, Chital and three- striped palm squirrel.
Prominent among the varieties of birds in the forest area are peacock, red jungle fowl, grey partridge, cuckoos, night jars, golden oriole, kingfisher, swifts, hoopoes, hornbill, barbets, woodpeckers, rollers, barn owls, parrots, doves, jacanas, plovers, coots, hawks, geese, swan, ducks, grebes among others.
As per the census report, varieties of reptiles including snakes like cobra, rat snake, Common krait, Russell’s viper, Indian python and common monitor (Gho), freshwater turtle also inhibits the Sanctuary.
The wildlife habitat also houses wide variety of butterflies, moth and honey-bee in abundance.
Notably, more than 10000 wildlife enthusiasts visit the Sanctuary every year.