BENGALURU: While handling wildlife emergencies and dealing with man-animal conflicts near forest areas or national parks, the National Tiger Conservation Authority had mandated all states with tiger reserves to recruit and assign a veterinarian to each of them.
Complying with the rules, the state forest department appointed dedicated veterinarians in four reserves but failed to appoint a full-time one for Kali Tiger Reserve, thus drawing NTCA's attention.
In its latest direction to the department, NTCA directed the chief wildlife warden to appoint a full-time veterinarian to Kali Tiger Reserve, which is the youngest tiger reserve in Karnataka. The department has already appointed full-time veterinarians at Bandipur, Nagarahole, BRT and Bhadra reserves in the last two years.
Forest department sources told TOI that veterinary requirements were earlier met through veterinary officers who were on deputation to the department.
"Retention of these doctors who are posted on deputation was a difficult task earlier. If the parent department withdrew their services or assigned them additional duties outside the reserve, we had to rely on local government veterinarians. In emergency situations like death or attack of tigers, we lacked experienced veterinarians. Keeping these practical problems in mind, NTCA ordered recruitment of full-time veterinarians," a senior officer who had previously worked as field director explained.
The absence of a full-time veterinarian has reportedly affected the administration in Kali Tiger Reserve on a daily basis. Bengaluru-based techie and conservation volunteer Giridhar Kulkarni had brought the difficulties to NTCA's notice, which has now directed the state to recruit a full-time veterinarian for the tiger reserve.
Maria Christu Raja D, field director, Kali Tiger Reserve, agreed that for the last two years they have been managing the administration by hiring services of government veterinarians either from Joida taluk or Gadag zoo. "We are looking at a holistic option of setting up a small veterinary cell rather than having just one veterinarian. A cell with equipment will also aid research and documentation of various species," Christu Raja said.
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