Three cubs born at Birsa Zoo, jumbo calf dies of thirst in PTR

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Good to hear yells from three newborn babies of ‘Anuskha’, the pretty tigress of Birsa Zoo; bad that a four-year-old young pachyderm died thirsty at famed Palamu Tiger Reserve and ugly to know fast evaporating water holes in and around wildlife sanctuaries under intense heat that has started gripping Jharkhand.

First thing first! After a long time the zoo lovers of Ranchi woke with news of new guests coming at Birsa Zoo in the form of three lovely and healthy cubs to the big cat couple ‘Anushka’ and ‘Mallick’ on Sunday which pumped them up to throng at the abode.

“The tigress had given birth exactly a month ago from today. But we kept that secret because animals, especially canines get disturbed due to interference and unwanted activities. Thus we decided to keep the mother and the kids isolated from the visitors coming to the Birsa Zoo.On Sunday, we made that public and installed CCTV camera. It is beaming the mother and cubs live from their enclosures through a screen installed outside for the visitors,” Chief Wildlife Warden LR Singh told The Pioneer.

This is also heartening to know that the mother and her cubs are doing well, are taken special care of with healthy food supplements and would take the populace of big cats to double at the zoo. “The couple was brought from Hyderabad Zoo in 2016. Also, we have another tiger ‘Shiva’ here. Now if things go well the number of tigers in Birsa Zoo would jump to six which is very good for us,” said the PCCF.

Moreover at the same time sad news also came from the Palamu Tiger Reserve where a four-year-old male elephant was found dead under Betla range. Forest officials informed that the death had in fact occurred on Friday but came into light later.

AK Mishra, Deputy Director of North Division of PTR, said on Sunday that the death occurred due to dehydration. “Our staffs came to know about the death on Friday but as a herd of 12 to 15 elephant was surrounding the dead, it was not possible to reach there. When the herd abandoned the place the staffs buried it after autopsy. Signs of water shortage on its body were most prominent,” added Mishra. He said no water was found from the elephant’s intestines as per the post mortem report. Badly parched and wrinkled skin supported the cause behind the death. In a larger context the sign is worrisome ahead of the worse summers in the region and other areas.

“This is unfortunate but true that water shortages have been the cause of deaths in PTR and other sanctuaries of the State during long and harsh summers. Some deer had also died in the area recently. Nevertheless we have gone for water management like never before,” said LR Singh.

The Chief Wildlife Warden maintained that the Department to deal with water shortage to wild lives of the State prepared a three- year plan and has gone for series of water holes, check dams, de-siltation and rennovation of ponds across the sanctuaries.

“Locals have also been taken into loop to maintain the water bodies frequented by wild animals. Availability of water has certainly improved in recent times. But since elephant is a wondering animal and it is possible that at any location any animal does not get water. This would have been the case with the youth elephant’s death in the PTR,” said he. 

Local report suggested that nearest water body from the place where this body was found is 3.5 kms. Also river Oranga which flows through the reserve has dried up with onset of the summer; thanks to scanty monsoon playing down ugly scenes year after year in the region and outside.