Indian bison’s death prompts forest dept to conduct training on rescue operations

Days after the death of the Indian bison in a residential locality of Pune and a leopard was shot dead in Solapur, the forest department held a training of its staff

Days after the death of the Indian bison in a residential locality of Pune and a leopard was shot dead in Solapur, the forest department held a training of its staff on how to capture wild animals.

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After two incidents, the forest department on Monday held a daylong session on rescuing wild animals in city limits in order to prevent their lives.

This training programme, held at the Rescue Transit Centre, Bavdhan was organized by the department of forest and rescue centre and focused on Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) to capture the wild animals along with crowd control management. The death of the bison last week had attracted criticism from various quarters.

Around 150 people from the department of forest, police personnel, veterinary doctors and NGO’s working in the rescue attended the training programme.

“We had arranged a theory and practical session for people who are part of the rescue missions in the past. This latest session was arranged in a retrospective of the two incidents that took place recently where an Indian bison which lost its way in Kothrud died of exhaustion. In another incident, a leopard, which reportedly killed eight persons, was shot dead at Karmala in Solapur district due to a man-animal conflict,” said Rahul Patil, deputy conservator of forests, Pune.

The training was in-depth and also important as a step to minimize the man-animal conflict which is increasing day by day, said forest officials. “We should be ready with mitigation measures, at least the front-line staff should be ready,” said Patil.

The participants had brainstorming sessions with HS Prayag, senior veterinary, from the Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences as well as practical sessions where they discussed tranquillizer dosage for every animal which has a different dosage, how to handle a tranquillizer gun. The participants also practised rescue on a bull at the treatment centre.

“We plan to upgrade the department with sessions every three months and create a standard protocol of how to handle such incidents,” said Patil.

The training also included how to handle animals in distress, keeping distancing and using tranquiliser guns