Water provisions for animals in Nallamala forest during summer

Kurnool: With temperature continuing to rise during the summer months, wild animals in Nallamala forest had been finding it hard to quench their thirst. They would, at times, venture into nearby villages abutting the forest lines in search of water and cause panic among the villagers.

With the authorities' increasing focus on providing water facilities across the animal corridors in Nallamala, reports of of wild animals entering the hamlets have been minimised, said Atmakur DFO Sambangi Srinivas.

He informed that around 70 saucer pits had been dug across the known zones of animal tracks that have sufficient water supply for the visiting animals. Larger saucer pits with a capacity of around 10,000 litres were also being made available with efforts to reduce seepage and evaporation of water, he added. Green grass is being grown near the water sources to help herbivores feed themselves, he added.

The Nallamala forest region is home to a variety of animals including tigers, leopards and porcupines. At times, some of the animals are reported to be moving out of the forests in search of water and fall victim to road accidents. This could be gauged from caracasses lying on the Srisailam road from Atmakur onwards.

Srinivas said that forest fires were a matter of concern during summer. To tackle this, 115 forest watchers have been recruited. Most of them are youths from adjoining villages on Nallamala forest. He said that a 200-kilometre long fire line had been assigned to these guards to keep track of any fire in the forest. They have been equipped with fire fighting material, the DFO added.

Elaborating on the arrangements made for the wild life during summer months, he said that saucer pit management system (SPMS) had been put in place that would help monitors water level in real time. Replenishment would be done through tankers.

In some of the inaccessible areas in deep forest, he said solar powered bore wells were dug which would be fill the pits automatically.

Nandyal division had also taken up water management system in the forest area with 50 saucer pits each measuring 15 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep provided at several places across the forest. CC cameras have been installed near the pits. Each pit will have a capacity to store at least 2,000 litres of water. Once in a week, officials would  fill them up with water. The officials have set up solar sprinkler at Gundla Brahmeswaram, Basavapuram and Muduvakulagedda to enable the wild animals to cool themselves from the sweltering heat.