Bhubaneswar: Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, Susanta Nanda has unveiled another wildlife conservation program in the State.
In a major conservation move, the State Wildlife Organization in the Department of Forest, Environment & Climate Change has reintroduced rare blackbuck in Puri’s Balukhand-Konark wildlife sanctuary where the species once thrived.
“Puri Balukhand Sanctuary will be home to BlackBucks again. It had gone locally extinct from the area for the last two decades. As part of the species recovery programme, Blackbucks are being re-wilded from Nandankanan & translocated from wild from over populated Ganjam landscapes,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, Susanta Nanda said on X.
“As per the species recovery programme of the Union government and the State government, effort is being made to recover the locally extinct animals. After getting permission from the Union government, we have transferred some Blackbucks from Nandankanan Zoo to the Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary,” he added.
According to officials, six female and four male Blackbucks were reintroduced in the wildlife sanctuary. The animals will be kept in quarantine inside a special enclosure in the 30-hectare forest area. After being kept in quarantine for a month, the health conditions of the animals will be examined. A special team will keep a watch on the blackbucks during the quarantine period, the officials said.
The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has approved the blackbuck introduction programme. The Forest Department will introduce a total of 25 blackbucks from Nandankanan and six from Betonati in Balukhand in a phased manner.
The Bhetnoi landscape in Ganjam holds the state’s single population of the schedule-I animal that prefers plain land with ample water sources. In last year’s count, the blackbuck population in the district stood at 7,743.
Due to very severe cyclone, Phailin the blackbuck population completely vanished from the Balukhand division.
Apart from natural calamities, construction activities near the habitat, depletion of meadow, hunting by stray dogs, poaching and road accidents led to the extinction of blackbucks.