The forest cover of Pilibhit in Western Uttar Pradesh — its tigers and the rich reserve of flora and fauna — has become a hub for wildlife enthusiasts.
A team of experts from the Wildlife Research Institute (WRI) will be camping in the region to understand and survey the fauna of the Terai region. This is the third team which will be studying this region in the last six months. Earlier too, teams from the Wildlife Trust of India have surveyed the area to assess the tiger habitat.
According to official information, the team is headed by Dr Barry Richard Noon, a professor in the department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins. A Fulbright scholar, he lecturing on Data Collection and Analysis for Wildlife Conservation at WTI at Dehradun.
The two-member team, which will be spending nearly a month in the region, will be studying Ungulate herbivore species of antelopes and deer like the Rusa Unicolour (Sambhar), Hard hoofed swamp deer (Barahsingha), Four-horned Antelope (Chausingha or Tetracerus quadricornis) and Hog Deer (Axis porcinus). The study will determine their presence, population and also, the suitable environment for their breeding. It will correlate the presence of these species with the increasing area of the tigers in the region.
This is the first time that so many teams will be surveying the forest in the district. Giving details, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Pilibhit, VK Singh, said: “We have had one or two teams which were so far understanding the region as a tiger terrain. But recent findings have shown that there is a good population of smaller animals like deer, which primarily are also the prey for the tigers, in the region. Hence, experts have started coming in from various institutes to study all these factors.”
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