JALPAIGURI: Two adult male bison died at Chamurchi in Dooars on Tuesday. While one collided with a tree, the other one died after forestdepartment officials, in a bid to send the animals back into the forest, tranquilized it.
Three bison strayed out of the Diana forest and entered the Chamurchi and Chunabhati tea estates in Chamurchi through the India-Bhutan border on Tuesday morning. Once the animals were spotted, locals converged at the spot. The excited mob was posing a consistent disturbance to them. This annoyed the bisons and they went on a rampage in the tea estate, damaging a few dwellings and injuring two inhabitants.
Two of the three adult male bison that had strayed out of forest on Tuesday, died after one hit a trunk of a tree while chasing a man and the other one died after the forest department tranquilized it in a bid to send them back in the forest. This happened in Chamurchi in the Dooars on Tuesday.Three bison had come out of the Diana forest and had entered the Chamurchi and Chunabhati tea estates in Chamurchi by the India-Bhutan border on Tuesday morning at around 9 am. The animals first entered the Chamurchi tea estate when some villagers spotted those. Soon there was a public gathering. Seeing the mob, which was consistently posing disturbance for the animals, the bison went on a rampage in the tea estate damaging few dwellings and injuring two garden inhabitants.
The animals then entered the Chunabhati tea estate. There too, villagers started gathering. People did not pay heed to pleas by the foresters, who had arrived by then. Irritated at the noise, the animals ran amok injuring one villager. To prevent further damage, the forest department sought support of the SSB that has a camp in the vicinity to disperse the mob.
the foresters burst crackers to drive the animals back to a nearby forest some 3km away. While one bison responded to it and returned into Diana forest, the other two started chasing the people standing there.
While chasing a villager, one of the bison hit a tree trunk and died on the spot. The forest department officials then darted the other bison. The animal died due to cardiac arrest while on the way to Chapramari wildlife sanctuary, where it would have been released. . It was then loaded on a vehicle and was being taken from there to be released at Chapramari wildlife sanctuary.
But when the vehicle reached Khunia More on the outskirts of Chapramari, some 20 km away, vets found that the animal had died. "The animals died due to cardiac arrest.
"Bison have a very weak heart and often cannot withstand tranquilization," most of the time they are tranquilized, they cannot survive. Our foresters had initially tried to drive the animals back into forest. But owing to the huge public presence they had no alternative but to dart the animal. Else, the animals would have had injured several other villagers", said Sumita Ghatak,DFO, Wildlife II, Jalpaiguri.
No comments:
Post a Comment