Wildlife expert hasn’t been lying back in a chair amid pandemic

Aparna Banerji

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 4

Beware! it can get really wild out there. And wildlife expert Nikhil Senger has been at the heart of it. In his 14 years of experience, he has been bitten by a snake, attacked by a civet cat, wild boars and Sambars. Dedicating his life to the occupation, he has rescued 7,000 to 8,000 animals so far.

While the lockdown has shut shops for many, his hasn’t taken a back seat. On the contrary, the work has only shot up. Driving his pick up vehicle across the jungles and villages of Punjab, he has been spending quality Covid time rescuing wild snakes, leopards among others and taking them to the safety of the jungle. He even documents wild cats and boasts of creating a comprehensive map on animals — created via meticulous GPS mapping of wild animals he has been rescuing in the past many years.

“The frequency of calls for rescue have increased. In a day I get five to seven calls, but honestly going about more than four rescues per day is hard. We are also conducting GPS mapping of all our snakes which gives an idea as to which areas are more susceptible to having larger snake populations. This is helped us understand snake behaviour more too,” says Nikhil, who is a wildlife conservationist, researcher, rescuer, honorary wildlife warden and a painter.

During the time of restrictions imposed, he has also employed his town team of men with help from villagers to clean out garbage and litter from the picturesque forests of the Shivaliks and Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur. Recently, he rescued several ducks from a farm here and a cobra snuggled up in a household too. Apart from this, he has discovered two rare species in the region as well – leopard gecko and black-headed royal snake. Nikhil says, “So far only Karnataka snakes’ venom has been used to treat a snake bite. But after the findings of a research, venoms from Punjab’s snakes could be employed in local snake bite cases.”

Caught unawares

Unaware of his calling before a foray into the jungles made him pursue the path after graduating, Nikhil never had an inkling that one day he would become a wildlife expert. However, his parents’ moved abroad, while he was still in his 20s, gave him time to find his calling and independence. Tempted by the wild an increasing forays into the Nawanshahr and Shivalik forests led him to an unusual experience.

Spent Covid time rescuing animals

While the lockdown has shut shops for many, he hasn’t rested all this while. On the contrary, the work has only shot up. Driving his pick up vehicle across the jungles and villages of Punjab, he has been spending quality Covid time rescuing wild snakes, leopards among others and taking them to the safety of the jungle. He even documents wild cats and boasts of creating a comprehensive map on animals — created via meticulous GPS mapping of wild animals he has been rescuing in the past many years. He has been bitten by a snake, attacked by a civet cat, wild boars and Sambars. During the time of restrictions imposed, he has also employed his town team of men with help from villagers to clean out garbage and litter from the picturesque forests of the Shivaliks and Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur.