35 years on, deer breeding centre still limping
The state-run deer breeding centre in Madhupur upazila of Tangail has been gripped by numerous problems including acute fund crisis, shortage of manpower and logistics.
The breeding centre, which started with four pairs of spotted deer, was set up on 37 acres of land in Luhuria beat under Sadar Range of Madhupur National Park in 1982 for raising wild population in the natural Sal forest, officials of the forest department said.
In the last 35 years the number of spotted deer stood at 65 which is poor comparing to the total time span, they said.
The forest department, which is in-charge of the centre, can provide only 12kg to 15kg of food -- rice dust and mustard cake -- for the animals once a day, which is insufficient for the animals, said Manjurul Alam, forester of the beat.
When the animals remain hungry, they eat grass, fresh leaves and fruits of different trees, he said, adding, but there are a few fruit trees inside the centre.
The forester said he along with three others -- a forest watcher and two forest guards -- are assigned to take care of the animals apart from supervising the forest in the beat area.
“What can we do? We get only Tk 5,000 per month to maintain the breeding centre whereas we need at least Tk 15,000 a month,” said Khasru Alam, Sadar Range Officer. “Oftentimes we have to buy food on credit for the animals,” said the range officer. “We don't even have any wildlife expert in the breeding centre and the four men are not trained well enough to handle the animals,” he further said.
“When any of the animals get sick, we are unable to provide proper treatment. We also don't have sufficient cages for catching and keeping the sick animals,” he said.
Though the centre is surrounded by concrete boundary walls to protect the deer from poachers, but animals like foxes and jackals enter the area easily by digging tunnels under the walls and kill the fawns, said Khasru.
“There are also animals like civet that get inside the centre climbing large trees to catch fawns. We have no way of preventing these animals from entering the centre,” he added.
Admitting all the prevailing shortcomings at the centre, Masud Rana, divisional forest officer in Tangail, said he has already written to the higher authorities regarding the problems.
The forest department has already taken a plan to appoint trained personel for the centre, provide necessary logistics, increase the height of the boundary walls and strengthen its foundation underneath the walls to prevent animals digging holes below, he said.
It has also adopted a plan planting trees -- both fruit-bearing and wild -- inside the centre to ease food crisis of the animals,” he added.
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