115 Spotted Deer from Sambalpur Zoo Translocated to Debrigarh Sanctuary

Sambalpur: The process of translocation of 115 Spotted Deer from the Sambalpur Zoo to the Debrigarh Sanctuary in Bargarh district for species augmentation has already begun.

Today from 3 am onwards, 12 have been translocated successfully to the Quarantine enclosure at Debrigarh. Further, 12-16 in every batch will get shifted during dawn and dusk in phases. The Quarantine enclosure is 1.2 hectares in area, with Saltlick, water pool, treatment care unit, CCTV cameras, and Blackflash cameras inside the enclosure. One emergency healthcare unit is also there. 4 Machans have been created around the Quarantine enclosure.

Deers will be in Quarantine for around 3 to 4 weeks and then will be released into the Wild only after they are acclimatised to the natural habitat of Debrigarh. The site of quarantine & release partially covers both grazing & browsing habitats- grassland and forest, as well as the adjoining Hirakud reservoir. This will help the deers get accustomed to grassland, terrain, forest & reservoir. Grassland management in that area has been done scientifically and 7 to 8 varieties of palatable grasses are present (Dicanthium, Heteropogon, Cloris, Vitiver, Cynodon etc) along with 10 to 12 browsable fodder varieties nutritious for herbivores.

The health condition of All 115 Spotted Deer has been checked & all r healthy, without any disease and no Tuberculosis infection traced in any animal. Centre for Wildlife Health, a certified institute of Bhubaneswar has done all necessary tests (blood & swabs) of deer in this regard.

The method is called “Boma Capturing Technique” (started in Africa years back) – spotted deers were lured to enter a funnel-shaped enclosure(fenced from all sides by bamboo & greennet) close to their zoo enclosure. The funnel is internally connected to the translocation vehicle ( customised locally by wildlife officials ) and supported with grass mats, gunny bags & opaque for animals. Selection cum loading into the vehicle continues simultaneously before transport. This process needs a cool and disturbance-free environment.

Translocation is a process to make animals wild from captive breeding smoothly and in a stable manner.
Today 12 have been transferred to quarantine in the sanctuary( translocation by Boma method was taken up between 3 am to 5 am in the zoo today), 2nd phase transfer will be done today. Then subsequently within one month 115 to be transferred.

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