Delhi: Golden jackals spotted at Yamuna biodiversity park
Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist at the park and scientist-in-charge of the Delhi Development Authority’s biodiversity parks programme, said the pair was sighted on Saturday, adding that the presence of jackals is vital for a healthy ecosystem
A pair of golden jackals (Canis aureus) have been sighted at the Yamuna Biodiversity Park in north Delhi’s Wazirabad — the first-ever sighting of the animal in the park.
Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist at the park and scientist-in-charge of the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) biodiversity parks programme, said the pair was sighted on Saturday, adding that the presence of jackals is vital for a healthy ecosystem.
“Golden jackals are an important predator for any ecosystem as they take part in the food chain and also help control the population of herbivores. They also play an important role by scavenging animal flesh and recycling organic materials, which in turn leads to a healthy ecosystem,” said Khudsar, adding that the animal generally has a social structure and occasionally lives in packs with the basic social unit of a breeding pair.
“The presence of jackals in the restored habitat of Yamuna Biodiversity Park indicates successful rewilding has taken place,” he added.
While golden jackals can be seen quite frequently in the southern ridge — an extension of the Aravallis — they are a rare sighting along the Yamuna floodplains, experts said.
Sohail Madan, centre manager, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, said while the jackal is seen more frequently along the Aravallis, it is a fairly adaptive animal and can survive in jungles, floodplains and even along farmlands. “It is an omnivore, so it has different food options. We have seen it in the Yamuna Khadar area in the past too, but it is an uncommon sight. It is possible that the animal came from the Uttar Pradesh side, where a new biodiversity park has been created in Ghaziabad,” he said.
Khudsar, meanwhile, believed that the jackal pair may have wandered into the Yamuna Biodiversity Park through a corridor previously taken by a leopard in 2016 — along the Yamuna riverplains from Kalesar in Haryana, the nearest large forest patch north of Delhi.
In 2016, the leopard that wandered into the park stayed there for more than two weeks, before it was translocated by the state forest and wildlife department, owing to a security risk to neighbouring residential pockets. However, officials said that unlike the leopard, there is no risk to humans of any attack from the jackals, and therefore, no plans exist to translocate the animals.