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Mounting
population pressure on forest in the past had led to degradation of habitat and
most of the wild fauna had disappeared in those areas. Efforts have been made
to restore the degraded forest in South Bengal during last one decade and our
hope has since materialized to a large extent. Most of the degraded forests of
Midnapore, Bankura, Burdwan, Birbhum and Purulia districts has been restored and
form a good habitat. Moreover, with great achievement of Social Forestry Project
with a program of afforestation of large areas of unproductive, unutilised barren
lands outisde the forest areas, the pressure on the existing forest could be minimised.
In spite of restoration of these degraded forests in South Bengal ,
the vanishing stock of wild fauna like deer could not return in natural process.
So it was decided, initially to reintroduce spotted deer in the forests of Bankura
District. The existing Forest Protection Committee also came forward to help reintroduction
of Spotted Deer in the region. It was also decided to capture over crowded deer
population from deer parks and subsequently release in our National Parks, Wildlife
Sanctuaries at North Bengal.
To start with, during January '95, 17 spotted
deer were captured from the Deer Research Centre at Saltlake in Calcutta and taken
to Sutan Forest of Ranibundh Range. Subsequently, a second batch , 8 spotted deer
were captured from Bethuadahri Wildlife Sanctuary and released in Jaypur Forest
of Bankura Division during Feb'95. During Feb & March'96 another two batches of
spotted deer, 16 nos from Bethuadahri WLS and 20 nos from Adina deer park in Malda
were captured and released in Joypur, Sutan and Mahananda WLS.
Again,
20 deer were captured from Adina Deer Park in Malda durinh Jan-Feb'97 and released
in Gorumara National Park (7 nos), Jaldapara WLS 9 3nos) and Mahananda WLS(10
nos). Lastly, during Nov-Dec'98, 64 deer were captured from Parmadan Deer Park,
Banpukuria Deer Park, Jhargram Deer Park and Bethuadahri WLS and released in Surulia,
Mahananda WLS, Gorumara NP and Nayagram.
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