Haven for swamp deer

At a time when there are disconcerting reports about increasing threats to the wildlife and their depleting population in the country, there some good news for the wildlife enthusiasts.

The number of swamp deer has been steadily increasing for the last few years in Jhilmil Jheel in Haridwar forest division. It is the sole habitat of this rare species in Uttarakhand.

A recent census of the Jheel by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, has come to this conclusion.

Swamp deer is a highly endangered species protected under schedule 1, of the Wildlife Protection Act of India 1972. It is also included in the red data list of the rare animals of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an affiliate of the UN.

Jhilmil Jheel, a wetland, spread over 3783.5 hectares of land along the bank of the Ganga, was declared a community conservation reserve for the protection of swamp deer by the Environment
Ministry in 2005 on the recommendation of the state government and the locals involved in the management of the Jheel.

Steps taken

Steps were taken to improve the quality of habitat for the swamp deer, including the relocation of  families residing within the area. Poaching was also curbed.

Four teams from WII were constituted for the enumeration which was done with the help of
telescopic lenses.

The subdivisional forest officer, K S Rawat, who was the nodal officer for the count, said 214 swamp deer, including 65 stags, 129 hinds and 20 fawns, were sighted in the Jhilmil Jheel in three groups.

“This is a substantial increase. The male-female ratio, which is about 1:2, is a very healthy sex ratio.

“There were only 35 swamp deer in 2005 when the Jheel was declared a community conservation reserve”, said Rawat.

The divisional forest officer, Sanatan Sonkar said they were planning to implant microchips in the swamp deer to study their behaviour and migratory pattern.