Updated: December 9, 2020 10:56:24 pm
According to information provided by local police, the animal was spotted by some people at the end of an internal road at the Mahatma Society.
A great drama ensued in the Kothrud area on Wednesday morning after the sighting and subsequent capture of an Indian or Gaur bison. However, the day ended with the sad news of the wild animal’s death, possibly due to stress and exhaustion, caused, among other things, by the rebellious crowd in the area, forest department officials said.
The day began with reports of a large wild bovine animal, later confirmed to be a Gaur, which was seen at the Mahatma Society in Kothrud around 7:30 a.m. The Gaur, a boy of approximately three to four years old, was first seen in an open courtyard next to a bungalow at the Mahatma Society. After seeing the animal, local residents reported to the forest department and the Pune Municipal Corporation, which in turn informed the local police.
“We dispatched our team to the area, primarily for crowd control, while Forest Department staff launched rescue efforts for the animal,” said Chief Inspector Sunil Tambe of the Kothrud Police Station.
Given the location where it was first spotted, the animal must have jumped over the protective wall, which it did again during the operation to rescue it, authorities said. The animal had some injuries, including bleeding wounds in the mouth, which may have been sustained during its transit from the forest area to the city, they said.
Pune Region Deputy Conservator of Forests Rahul Patil, who coordinated the rescue effort, said: “Our teams arrived at the scene around 8.30 am, approximately half an hour after receiving the call. Initially we cordoned off the area. We tried to fire a tranquilizer dart but couldn’t. The people of this area were cooperative and listened to the instructions of the authorities. After a while, Gaur started running from his starting place and ran for some distance towards the Bhusari colony. It is in this place where the crowd was rebellious. Due to the behavior of the crowd, the animal became even more agitated and began running wildly. He ran again to the same town where he was first sighted … it is at this point that we were able to calm him down and capture him with nets, sometime between 12:30 and 13:00.
Authorities said that during the four and a half hours of efforts to rescue the Gaur, he traversed a 3 km area, mostly in panic.
“After capturing it, we realized that the Gaur’s body temperature had risen significantly from normal, a sign of stress and exhaustion. We decided to release the animal in the Tamhini forest area after treating it at the transit treatment center of the forest department. It is in this center where the animal breathed for the last time. An autopsy was subsequently performed … prima facie suggests that the cause of death could be due to respiratory failure leading to cardiovascular failure, shock and death. However, the final cause of death will be given after receiving the lab reports. Speculation that tranquilizer darts could have caused death are unfounded. The dart successfully hit the animal only once, ”added Patil.
When asked, the forest department official said the animal could have ventured into the residential area from the contiguous Mulshi and Tamhini forest areas. While sightings of Gaurs in these forests are not very common, officials cited incidents in the past when Gaurs traveled long distances from the forests at Mahabaleshwar in Satara through connecting corridors to enter the forest areas adjoining the city. from Pune.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Pune-based wildlife researcher Dharmaraj Patil said: “In 2015, the state government devised an operational procedure to handle conflict situations between humans and Gaur. It is extremely important that these standard operating procedures are followed when dealing with these very shy animals. While a priority should be to adequately train and equip forest department staff, it is even more important to raise awareness among people about wildlife and sensitize them to their behavior during such situations.
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