MP: 50 bisons to be translocated to Sanjay Tiger Reserve from other national parks

According to forest officials, historical evidence suggested that bisons were found in the Sanjay Tiger Reserves forest areas.

Around 50 gaurs (Indian bison) will be translocated to Madhya Pradesh's Sanjay Tiger Reserve, which lost its entire population of the animal decades back, from other national parks of the state, forest officials said on Monday.

The Indian bison has been listed as ''vulnerable'' on the IUCN Red List since 1986.

The decision to translocate bison to the Sanjay Tiger Reserve in Sidhi district, to rebuild the animal population there, was taken in a recent meeting of the State Wildlife Board chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Alok Kumar said.

He said the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has also found the Sanjay Tiger Reserve suitable for the rehabilitation of the gaur, also called the Indian bison.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has already granted technical permission for the translocation of bison to this reserve, he said. According to forest officials, historical evidence suggested that bison were found in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve's forest areas. However, the reserve lost the population of the animal a long time back. It has been proposed that 50 Indian bison will be brought from the Satpura Tiger Reserve or Pench Tiger Reserve and relocated to the reserve in Sidhi district, forest officials said.

In a similar project earlier, bison were successfully translocated to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, they said.

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