Balasore, Dec. 7: Wildlife that populate the Kuldiha sanctuary are being trapped on camera for viewers to have a glimpse of them.

The forest's wildlife division has installed 25 trap cameras inside the sanctuary to keep tabs on the movement of wildlife. The move, however, is expected to become beneficial in tracking poachers as well.

Divisional forest officer Harshbardhan Udgata said: "Twenty-five trap cameras at around Rs 6 lakh have been installed in the sanctuary. In every 15 days, the position of the cameras are being changed, whereas the guards are downloading the images every week."

"Images of most of the wild animals are captured except those of leopards. We are exhibiting the pictures to the visiting tourists through slideshow," he said.

The wildlife resources in the sanctuary include mongoose, civet, porcupine, baking deer, spotted deer, mouse deer, sambar, langur, macaqua, peacock, wild pig, jungle fowl, apart from elephants. The sanctuary has 89 elephants and 10 leopards.

The division is also developing a meadow in order to provide adequate fodder to the deer population. The grassland is being developed on around 100 acres at Chemchata in the Jharnaghati range bordering Mayurbhanj district.

The initiative, first time taken by the department, will cost it around Rs 30 lakh. Out of the first-phase allotment of Rs 12 lakh, a part of the project has been over.

The meadow patch will have water bodies as well as salt licks. Apart from removing weeds and shrubs from the patch, indigenous grass will also be grown. Besides, there will be fodder culture as well.

"For the first time, the meadow development project of Rs 30 lakh has been undertaken in the Kuldiha sanctuary. The aim is to provide adequate food and water to the deer. With increase of prey population the predators' number will also get a boost," said Udgata.

"A watch tower has already been erected," he said.

The district has nearly 300 deer population, including the spotted and barking ones.