Valmiki Tiger Reserve

Patna, Oct. 9: A barking deer had a miraculous escape at Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) during Durga Puja when some gunmen fired at it. The bullet just brushed it.

A timely alarm raised by some residents forced the hunters to flee, leaving the injured barking deer — a scheduled animal. It was later taken to the local range office of the forest department where the animal was given first aid. After keeping in observation, the deer was rehabilitated in the woods.

Confirming the incident, VTR director Santosh Tiwari told The Telegraph: “The incident occurred at Govardhana range four days ago.”

VTR director termed the incident an exception. He said the deer was attacked perhaps because it strayed from the wild. Those who tried to kill the animal thought that no one would take notice of the incident, he said.

Taking a lesson from the incident, the VTR officials have constituted special patrolling teams to keep a tab on the movement of hunters who become active in the festive season. The trend generally starts from Durga Puja and continues up to Diwali.

According to sources, most of the hunters are local villagers. They look for meat of deer and wild boars in the festive season. Most of these people use nets to catch deer. They mix gunpowder with food to net wild boars. As soon as the animal chews the food it blasts, leaving the boar injured.

Tiwari said special patrolling teams had been constituted at Govardhana, Madanpur, Chitaha and Valmiki Nagar ranges, which are close to human habitation, to curb poaching. Services of youths have been roped in the patrolling teams and each team is led by a forest guard.

“The teams have been asked to keep tabs on the movement of local residents so that none could dare to engage in hunting as has been the practice in the past,” he added.

Besides the special patrolling, the VTR management has pressed into service additional vehicles for the regular patrolling teams.

The official records of VTR do not have anything to show the trend of poaching during Durga Puja. But the field officials are of the opinion that but for this year, there used to be hunting of wild animals during Puja almost every year.

“There would hardly be a year in the past when few wild animals would not be hunted during the Puja. But such incidents were never reported to avoid queries from higher officials,” a VTR field official told The Telegraph.

Tiwari expressed his ignorance on the trend in the past. “I have joined the reserve just few months ago. It would not be possible to say anything about the past without any official record,” he said.

He maintained that keeping the practice of hunting in mind and the Govardhana incident, he had directed the range officials to set up special patrolling teams in addition to the existing ones so that effective check on the practice of hunting during the festive season could be ensured.