Rescued from Ajnala village, sambar released into the wild

Neeraj Bagga

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 10

A day after rescuing a sambar from a house in Sansara Kalan village in Ajnala, officials of the Forest Department released it into a nearby notified forest area on Monday.

District Forest Officer Surjit Singh Sahota said it was a young male, nearly 2-years-old. No sign of injury was found during medical examination. So, it was immediately released into the jungle. He said since sambar was a shy and timid animal, which tends to suffer cardiac arrest owing to human handling, it was immediately released into its natural habitat.

Every year, during foggy days protected animals, including sambar, deer and wild boars, are sighted in human habitations. Wildlife expert Dr Sandeep K Jain said these animals straying into human habitat was another example of man-animal conflict. Efforts on the part of the government to protect their original habitat must be initiated and strayed wild animals must be rescued promptly. These are often killed for their meat and other body parts for medicinal purpose. Over the past some years, the population of protected animals — sambar and wild boars — has increased in the 13,898.53 hectare forest area of the border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran. Their straying from the Shivalik foothills into the plains is also recorded during the winter.