Translocation of water buffaloes in DTR proposed

Shahjahanpur: After successfully translocating rhinos from Assam to Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), forest officials are now propose to repopulate the jungles with Asiatic buffaloes, also called wild water buffalo. A proposal to the effect has been sent to the state government but the project is yet to receive an approval.

Dudhwa forests used to have a population of wild water buffaloes in the past but they became extinct with time. Its habitat supports breeding of this species, which is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red list of wildlife species.

The idea to reintroduce the wild buffalo in Dudhwa was the brainchild of then field director Ramesh Pandey. It was sent for approval in 2018. Now, the proposal has been sent again after a project to translocate five female wild buffaloes from Assam to Jharkhand was approved by the respective state government to boost itse population.

Field director, DTR, Sanjay Pathak told TOI, “We have recently sent a proposal to reintroduce wild water buffaloes to Dudhwa and are yet to receive any response on the same. This species is a mega herbivore which may have existed in Dudhwa in the past. However; we don’t have conclusive evidence to say it.” There are no written documents available with the department. However, both locals and wildlife experts have vouched for existence of the water buffalo in Dudhwa many years ago.

When TOI contacted state coordinator of WWF-India Mudit Gupta about the possibility of reintroduction of wild buffaloes in Dudhwa and its benefits, he said, “Habitat here is quite similar to Kaziranga in Assam and many species like swamp deer and hog deer exist in both places. Earlier, rhinos were successfully reintroduced here. There is a great possibility that the habitat will support wild buffalo. However, detailed habitat assessment exercise is needed to be done once the project is approved. Because wild buffalo is a mega herbivore like elephants and rhinos, it will help in effective grassland management in a natural way. Grassland management helps in the existence of small herbivores and prevents incidents like forest fire.”

The Asiatic water buffalo’s presence is restricted to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Destruction of habitat and inter-breeding with domestic buffaloes are the prominent reasons leading to the decline in the number of this species, believe experts.