Wildlife dept to take steps to increase otter population in Bhainsroadgarh
KOTA: The wildlife department would soon make efforts to increase the population of otters in the Bhainsroadgarh Sanctuary of the Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) of Kota.
The Smooth Indian Otter, popularly known as Water Cat (Ud Bilav), was abundant in the Chambal River in Kota prior construction of dams on Chambal River in the 1960’s which declined later but again resurged in the last one decade.
Presently the population of otters are stable in the in the downstream of the Rana Pratap Sagar Dam of Rawatbhata and not increasing significantly but now wildlife department wants to increase its population.
Chief Conservator of forest, Wildlife, Kota, Anand Mohan told that Chief Wildlife warden of Rajasthan, Arindam Tomar visited the Bhainroadgarh sanctuary in MHTR recently after which he gave instructions for augmenting the population of otters in the sanctuary.
“Presently there are 9 otters in the downstream of the Rana Pratap Sagar in MHTR whose population can be increased”, he said. “Otters face difficulty in finding fishes for their food in the downstream of the Rana Pratap Sagar dam due to which they do not get enough time to mate and increase their population”, he said. Anand Mohan said that wildlife department is planning to pour fishes in the Chulia waterfall so that they can get sufficient fishes as their food and do not consume most of their time in searching for food.
“Once otters will get adequate food then they can spare time for breeding and increasing their families in the Chambal river”, he said. Also plans are being made for secluding the habitat of otters along the banks of the Chambal river so as to prevent flooding of their shelters in monsoon from next monsoon season, he said.
He told that Smooth Indian Otters are Known for their playful nature, curiosity, baby-faced charm and family bonding so they are attractive creature to watch out for in MTHR. Adil Saif, who is also observing Otters and Sloth Bears in MHTR, told that Check on the illegal activities of tree shelling, illicit mining and illicit fishing lead to resurgence of Otters in MHTR. Anand Mohan said that the otters had disappeared for some time during the excess water discharge from the dams of the Chambal river in the year 2018 and 2019 also but they reappeared so there are hopes that they will once again reappear in some time.