Chhattisgarh Forest Department monitors wild buffaloes via radio collars

Initiating one of its most ambitious projects, the Chhattisgarh Forest Department, along with help of wildlife biologists, managed to successfully place radio collars on two wild buffaloes at the Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary last week.

The placing of the collars, done for the first time in the country, will not only help provide information on the movement of the buffaloes but also help take up conservation steps.

Dr RP Mishra, the head of Central India Wild buffalo Conservation Project and the coordinator for Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), who has been managing the conservation project with the forest department, said that the team faced several challenges right from tracking the buffaloes for collaring to tranquilizing them. “Given the fact that these are huge animals and also keep a distance from humans, we knew that tranquilizing them was always going to be challenging and hence intensive tracking of buffaloes was being carried out from March 1,” Mishra said, adding that WTI had consulted and brought in Dr Markus Hofmeyr from South Africa National Parks (SANParks), who is an expert on the tranquilization of large mammals.

The collaring process was completed on March 18 and 19 after the team working on the ground managed to track two animals, which were darted before being collared.