Herd near park, but MP goes ahead with translocation plan

The gaur mysteriously went extinct from Bandhavgarh in 1998. But over the past month, a herd of around 10 gaur have migrated from territorial forests to Amarkantak, just 30 km from the reserve.

While scientists say these animals can be successfully channelised towards Bandhavgarh, the Forest Department insists it will go ahead with the original plan to translocate 20 animals from Kanha. Buoyed by the successful Sariska tiger translocation, the state will use the same team of scientists.

While the state will fund 80 per cent of the project, the rest will be funded by Taj Safari — a joint venture between the Taj Group and Conservation Corporation Africa — and Bandhavgarh funds. It is a costly exercise. Creating soft release enclosures alone will cost around Rs 70 lakh.

Experts say the herd of gaur probably took this new migartion route due to disturbance to their habitat. “This is the first time that gaur have been sighted in this particular area. They might have come from Achanakmar in Chattisgarh,” says Bandhavgarh Park director Aseem Srivastava. “We will go ahead with the original translocation plan. This particular population might try to move back to where it came from,” he adds. “We are confident about this project as we have already seen the expertise of the Wildlife Institute of India. We hope to finish the first phase of the project by March 2009,” says Srivastava.

However, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has come out against the translocation. “At this point, it is wiser to revive the ecological corridor from Amarkantak instead of getting into a complicated translocation plan. Gaurs have four stomachs and are likely to develop complications during a long journey. Moreover, no pilot exercise has been conducted. Even the factors which caused the extinction of the gaur in Bandhavgarh have not been studied,” says NTCA member secretary Rajesh Gopal.

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