July 17th 2024.
Officials have recently informed that the process of moving 115 spotted deer from Sambalpur Zoo to Debrigarh Sanctuary in Bargarh district has commenced and is expected to be completed within a month. This decision has been made in order to increase the population of spotted deer in Debrigarh Sanctuary and to reduce their numbers in Sambalpur zoo. The translocation will also aid in the augmentation of prey in the sanctuary and make room for new animals in the zoo. Anshu Pragyan Das, DFO of Hirakud Wildlife Division, and Director of Sambalpur Zoo, shared that a total of 12 spotted deer were successfully relocated from the zoo to the sanctuary earlier this week.
The translocation process will continue in batches during the daytime, with 12 to 16 deer being shifted at a time. To ensure the safety and well-being of the deer, a quarantine enclosure spanning 1.2 hectares has been set up. It is equipped with a salt lick, water pool, and a treatment care unit, along with CCTV and Backflash cameras. Additionally, an emergency healthcare unit and four machans have been installed around the enclosure. Das further added that the deer will be quarantined for a period of three to four weeks before being released into the wild, once they have adapted to the natural habitat of Debrigarh. The chosen location for quarantine and release covers both grazing and browsing habitats, including grasslands, forests, and the adjoining Hirakud reservoir.
During a health check, all 115 spotted deer were found to be in good health with no signs of disease or tuberculosis infection. Translocation is a carefully planned process of moving wild animals from one place to another in order to establish, re-establish, or increase a population. Earlier this year, Sambalpur Zoo received ten blackbucks and eight Indian hog deer from Nandankanan Zoological Park.
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