Bhubaneswar: Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary, a proposed tiger reserve in Nuapada district, which was recently declared ‘Maoist-free’, may soon become a leopard habitat, officials said.In the recent all-India tiger estimation exercise, whose data is yet to be released officially, Sunabeda authorities claimed the sanctuary has more than 70 leopards, as 90% of camera traps recorded images of the animal, apart from other signs. Besides, Nuapada consistently reports man-leopard conflict.
“With a significant drop in Maoist presence and habitat management becoming robust, leading to increased prey density, we found an encouraging number of leopards in the sanctuary. The sanctuary has all varieties of prey, starting from deer and chowsingha to wild boar and bison,” said divisional forest officer (DFO) of Sunabeda, Sameer Sahu.Unlike previous years, the lack of Maoist presence in the sanctuary helped wildlife personnel install camera traps in every sector, giving them a clear idea about leopards and other carnivore and herbivore populations.“Earlier, Maoists used to remove some cameras to avoid being captured. Wildlife wing personnel were not able to install camera traps at many vantage locations, fearing Maoist attack. Almost 50% of the area of the sanctuary, which is spread over 600 sq km, was under Maoist influence,” said a wildlife officer.The 2016 state-level census pegged the tiger number in Sunabeda at four (three females and a male). One tiger was also sighted in Khariar division, outside the sanctuary’s boundary. However, the latest tiger census report released by the Centre on July 29 last year found no tiger in Sunabeda.Experts said Maoist influence has affected conservation efforts. With the situation improving, they hoped the outcome of the fresh census will be better.Due to Maoist presence since 2009 in Sunabeda, forest infrastructure was damaged, including attacks on forest personnel. Maoists mostly hid in a forest close to Sikaser dam in Chhattisgarh’s Gariabandh district, which is close to Sunabeda. Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary is also located in Gariabandh district. Both Sunabeda and Udanti have contiguous forests that gave an advantage to Maoists.“For long, the Maoists used Sikaser as their place of stay, while Sunabeda provided them a safe hideout,” a police officer said.
