ADILABAD: With the temperature hovering around 45.6 degrees Celsius at Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR) on Monday, the entire wildlife in Adilabad district is subject to unbearable torture while bearing the brunt of the extremely high temperatures.
On their part, forest officials have made some efforts to quench the thirst of the wild animals in the reserve forests in the core and buffer and corridor between Telangana state and Maharashtra. They constructed percolation tanks and check dams at Penchikalpet mandal in Sirpur (T) Assembly constituency, to check the water shortage in the forest in addition to creating saucer pits and setting solar-based water pumps at the existing water holes.
They are giving equal importance to grasslands as part of the conservation of forest in KTR and the corridors in Kagaznagar forest division.
With streams and rivulets on the verge of drying up in KTR, the wildlife is fully dependent on artificial water bodies that have been created by forest officials.
KTR field director C.P. Vinod Kumar said that they have been taking measures for the last two years to quench the thirst of the wildlife in the reserve. He said that they have focused on creating 32 solar operated percolation tanks and grasslands in strategic locations apart from sprinkling water on the grasslands regularly to keep the dry grass green for the herbivores. He said they had repaired eight watersheds in the tiger reserve.
