Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Kuno National Park, Sheopur is expecting to receive another batch of ‘spotted deer’ (Cheetals) from Pench National Park (Seoni) in the coming three to four days. The officials of Kuno are hopeful of getting around 50 spotted deer from Pench.
Field director of Pench Tiger Reserve Rajnesh Singh told Free Press that efforts are being made to catch the spotted deer through Boma technique under which spotted deer is captured in a physical manner.
Three Bomas have been placed inside the reserve to catch the spotted deer for transportation to Kuno National Park which is now home to nineteen cheetahs. The spotted deer are the basic prey base for cheetahs and Kuno national park is trying to increase their numbers.
Notably, Pench Tiger Reserve has the highest density of spotted deer in Madhya Pradesh. It has around 50,000 spotted deer. As the vast population of spotted deer leaves an adverse impact on grassland, the Pench Tiger Reserve authorities often give spotted deer to other national parks on demand.
So far, around 450 spotted deer have been translocated from Pench Tiger Reserve to Kuno National Park. Earlier, around 1800 spotted deer were shifted to Satpura Tiger Reserve followed by 700 to Satpura Tiger Reserve. In this way, around 3,000 spotted deer have been shifted by Pench Tiger Reserve to three main national parks of the state.
One of the reasons for the high population of spotted deer in Pench Tiger Reserve is that it has a combination of jungle and grassland. Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha Tiger Reserve also have a good population of spotted deer known as Cheetals in the state. Even states like Rajasthan and Odisha are contacting the Pench Tiger Reserve to learn the expertise of translocating the spotted deer.
