Amrabad Tigers May Soon Have Indian Gaurs For Company

HYDERABAD: The lone Indian gaur that wandered from afar from Karnataka into the Amrabad tiger reserve (ATR) in Telangana two years ago, could soon have some company of its own kind.

The state forest department is moving ahead with a first of its kind plan of translocation of any large wild animal in Telangana. If the plan holds, the tiger reserve, which will reopen for tourism in October after a three-month monsoon break, will have at least one small ‘family’ of gaur joining the lone male who has made ATR its home since the April of 2023.

Since the forest department has not undertaken the task of catching a wild animal as large as the Indian gaur – adult females can weight anywhere between 400kg and 1,000 kg, with males tipping the scales anywhere between 600kg and 1,500kg – for a translocation exercise, the department is sending a team of its officials to Karnataka which has experience in handling issues related to the gaur.

Chief wildlife warden of Telangana, Elusing Meru, told Deccan Chronicle that the state has healthy populations of the gaur in Kinnerasani and the Eturnagaram wildlife sanctuaries. “These will be the source populations for the planned reintroduction of the gaur in the Nallamala forests. To begin with, the plan is to shift a small group of these animals, one male along with two or three females,” he said.

Another potential source population could be gaur in the Nehru Zoological Park which has eight of these large bovines, Director of Zoos Dr Sunil Hiremath, field director of the Amrabad tiger reserve, said. He said a team of 10 officials from the tiger reserve is slated to visit the Mysore zoo, and Bannerghatta wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka, for first-hand experience of issues related to translocation of the gaur. “The Mysore zoo has a gaur breeding centre as part of efforts of conserving endangered species, just as our zoo in Hyderabad has one for mouse deer breeding and conservation,” he said.

Dr Hiremath said that a special vehicle for safe transport of the gaur was in the works. “Since these are very large animals, we need a specially designed vehicle to transport them. The vehicles can also be used during animal rescues,” he said.

The prospects of reintroducing the gaur into the Nallamala forests has its roots in the solitary male which found its way into the tiger reserve. Officials who traced its movements going backward, found that it came from Karnataka and settled in the Amrabad forests. It later crossed the Krishna river and went into the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam tiger reserve on the Andhra Pradesh side, but returned after a few months to Amrabad and has stayed put.

“The gaur is a Schedule I protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act and there are records of the animal being found in the Nallamala forests in the past. Amrabad is well suited for the animal with its grasslands,” Rohit Gopidi, the Nagarkurnool district forest officer said.