Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India

Greeting to you from Wildlife Trust of India,

Hope you are doing well!

This email comprises an update for our project ‘Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India’. Along the updates, we send to you our heartfelt gratitude for your generosity and for your trust in the work we do to protect our country’s wild animal population. It is through such acts of kindness that we are able to implement our conservation initiatives and work towards our vision of a secure natural heritage of India.

Kazinag National Park is located on the north bank of Jhelum River, close to the Line of Control between India and Pakistan in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the last four months, human-leopard conflict in the region has taken to alarming proportions. In the outskirts of Kazinag National Park, 5 children have been attacked and over 50 sheep killed by leopards. Human-wildlife conflict is not a new phenomenon, but it has certainly escalated in the past few years in Jammu and Kashmir. Rapid urbanisation and deforestation are the primary reasons for the rise in negative interactions. As the leopard habitat is being rapidly encroached upon for human requirements, the animals are left with no option but to turn to human settlements for food.

Understandably, the repeated attacks were causing fear and anger in the local community. To keep the locals safe and also to prevent any retaliatory killing of leopards by the enraged people, the forest department mobilised 6 teams to mitigate and manage the conflict situation.

While the monitoring teams had equipment for the capture and relocation of conflict leopards, they lacked basic field gear. For support, the Forest Department approached WTI and a Rapid Action Project was initiated to provide the monitoring teams with camera traps, torches, high altitude tents and sleeping bags. All six teams have been stationed in high-conflict areas. They have been actively keeping track of leopard movement and preventing leopards from entering into the villages.  

Although the solutions are short-term, we believe, these are critical to save lives, of both humans and leopards. As the tussle for space between humans and wildlife increases, these measures prove very effective in mitigating conflict and promoting co-existence. While we continue to identify the gaps and equip the frontline forest staff of India, we once again thank you for funding the initiative.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Hello and greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

We hope you are doing great.

With this email, we are sharing the updates for our project titled 'Equip Forest Guards to Protect Wildlife in India”. We are so honoured and grateful for your support as you chose to donate for the project among so many wonderful causes out there. This means a lot to us. Thank you so much for believing in our work.

Today’s updates are from Sohelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, where we addressed human-snake conflict through a Rapid Action Project sanctioned in the reporting period.

In the last one month, nearly 30 instances of human-snake conflict were reported from the region. To ensure safety of both humans and the reptiles, forest department approached WTI for help.

As a part of the project, WTI team, led by our reptile handling and rescue expert, conducted a snake rescue training of 20 forest staff officials for better management of conflict situations. The training covered both theoretical and practical aspects of snake handling and rescues. The staff were trained on identification of venomous snakes and snake behaviour, and were briefed about the common hiding places of snakes and myths related to reptiles. There was a practical on safe and ethical handling of snakes.

At night, following Day-1 of training, one of the newly trained staff managed to successfully capture and release a wolf snake near his accommodation.

In addition to the training, snake rescue kits were distributed to each patrolling camp in the sanctuary. Also, anti-snake venom vials were provided to the Forest Department for distribution in nearby hospitals. The hospitals weren’t equipped with anti-venom and last year a constable had lost his life due to the limitation.

With the aid provided, the frontline staff so far managed 25 snake rescues. The intervention has thus proved effective in managing human-snake conflict, thus helping both humans and reptiles of the Sohelwa wildlife sanctuary.

The above could have been made possible due to your support to the project. Thank you so much for making this happen.

Warm regards,

Team WTI