Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) team is expected to arrive in the state in December to carry out the estimation of snake distribution in selected forest areas here. The forest department has paid the WII in this regard.
Interacting with the Free Press, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, L Krishnamurthy said, “We are in talks with the WII and its team is expected to arrive in December to carry out estimation of snake distribution”.
He added that around Rs 30 lakh had been paid to the WII for the work.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Shubha Ranjan Sen said that the WII had sought 18 months to give the survey report of snake estimation work.
Sources in the forest department said that this would be the first time across the country or world that estimation of snake distribution would be done.
It is learnt that the WII team would do the random survey in selected sites. The wildlife activists are keeping their fingers crossed to know the outcome of the project which would be unique in itself.
Chief minister Mohan Yadav had expressed the desire to have the snake estimation in the state to know how many kinds of snakes were there in the state and what was their distribution pattern. According to him, this exercise would also help in containing snake bite cases. He had forwards the idea during the IFS officers’ meet held quite some time back.
No such work has been done in the world so far, hence there is no selected methodology in this regard. Even the forest officials of Madhya Pradesh are eager to know what kind of methodology will be adopted by the WII team for enumeration of snakes.
