Two Wild Buffalo Calves Born, Kindle Hope of Conservation in Chhattisgarh

 Raipur, Oct 6: Two wild buffalo calves, born in Barnawapara wildlife sanctuary in Mahasamund district in Chhattisgarh last month, has kindled hope of conservation of the highly endangered animal species in Chhattisgarh.

The two calves were born to a wild buffalo couple, trans-located from Manas National Sanctuary in Assam to Barnawapara wildlife sanctuary four years ago, in September this year, raising hope of conservation of the animal species, categorised in the red list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a senior forest officer said.

With the birth of the two calves, the population of wild buffalo in Barnawapara has increased to eight, deputy director, Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve Varun Jain told this newspaper on Sunday.

Udanti-Sitanadi wildlife sanctuary has one 23-year-old wild buffalo named Chhotu.

A wild buffalo breeding centre has been set up in the Udanti-Sitanadi wildlife sanctuary in 2006 for conservation of the animal species, declared as the state animal for its conservation.

There was only one wild buffalo, Chhotu, (in Udanti-Sitanadi wildlife sanctuary) in Chhattisgarh before six wild buffaloes including five females were shifted from Manas National Park to Barnawapara wildlife sanctuary in two batches in 2020 and 2023, according to Mr Jain.

Two calves were born to one wild buffalo couple in Barnawapara, according to Mr Jain.

Indravati Tiger Reserve spread over two states of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra has 12-15 wild buffaloes.

But, the wild buffalo population in Indravati Tiger Reservation is in the process of stabilisation and hence, it is not in a situation to share its inmates with other wildlife sanctuaries for conservation, sources said.

“We are planning to shift all the eight wild buffaloes of Barnawapara to the wild buffalo breeding centre in Udanti-Sitanadi for their breeding in the wild. The state wildlife board will take a decision in this regard”, Mr Jain said.

Aasha was the last breeding female wild buffalo in Chhattisgarh and died from natural causes in 2020.

She was kept in Udanti-Sitanadi wildlife sanctuary for mating and had given birth to one female and six males in her lifetime.

Her cloning was also done in the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal in Haryana in 2014 for conservation purposes and thus her clone ‘Vipasha’ was born.

But, purity of Aasha has been questioned and hence, breeding involving Aasha's progenies under wild buffalo conservation project has been held back till it would be proved that she is of pure breed, sources said.