The wilder side

Manan Vaya, Ram Teja, Sanjana S
NSoJ Bureau
Many reports have been done on the Man-Animal conflict over the years
touching upon the survival of wild animals. Rapid urbanization has led
to deforestation which in turn has led to the animals having been
forced out of their habitat. Very recently there was a report about a
tiger which had strayed out into the open near the Bannerghatta
National Park and killed cattle which belonged to the local villagers.
They had taken the cattle out for grazing in the adjoining areas of
the forest. The changing weather is another factor that is directly
responsible for the animals which move in search of favorable
conditions .Over the years lack of rainfall has led to shortage of
water in the Bannerghatta National Park . It can be attributed to the
gradual rise in temperature.

The security measures adopted by the officials can be gauged by a ride
through a safari. The vehicle is well protected by a grill on the
outer side as a shield. Enclosures have been erected on both sides of
the road, this being a two layer cover. Previously there have been
instances of lions attacking the safari and these preventive measures
take care of these incidents. The access of the core forest area is
strictly confined only to the safari and not accessible by foot. There
is a round the clock maintenance available at the park with officials
of various departments that are on stand by in case of any emergency.

The visitors we interacted with had a feeling that the park had
undergone too much commercialization compared to what the situation
had been a few years back. The safety measures have improved now, and
the maintenance could be upgraded.

Over the years, the increase in commercialization has been one of the
main drawback that pinpoints animal-human conflict. The increasing
number of visitors are bound to hamper  the lifestyle and routine of
animals. On enquiring the Executive Director of Bannerghatta
Biological Park, Mr.Santosh Kumartold  about the increased
commercialization disturbing the wildlife he briefed us about  the
scenario. He said “ There are four shops inside the zoo. Two of them
belongs to Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation and the
other two belongs to Karnataka Milk Federation, they are active for
five years  now.”

He further added that they have realized the shops are disturbing the
natural wildlife structure and in their last government council it has
been decided that two shops that belong to the Karnataka Milk
Federation should not be allowed to function at all, while the other
two will be asked to shift outside the zoo area. They have also given
them the prior one week time and are already working in that
direction.

Apart from too much of human sound that is likely  to disturb them,
there was a family taking their kids over the boundary to show them
Hippopotamus eating the grass and there were no guards near by to stop
them from doing so. When we had a word regarding the same with the
Executive Director Mr.Santosh Kumar he said ” They will inspect the
matter, generally these workers near the Hippopotamus enclosure are
very sincere, may be some human error from their side.Whatever it will
be, he will check it.”

There are a lot of collaborative projects of zoo  that are currently
going on with Veterinary College Hebbal,Veterinary College Mogha,
Veterinary College Bidar, Mysore University. When these institutes get
permission, they are provided with samples. Once the study is done
their report will be given to the zoo for further studies. This
information was given  by Dr. Sujay C.S., Assistant Veterinary Doctor,
Bannerghata Biological Park. Another attraction at the Bannerghatta
National park is the butterfly park.

Butterflies, one the most beautiful and fascinating creatures of the
insect world has attracted various people and has become one of the
greatest attractions of Bannerghatta National park. To study and
conserve these small wonders of nature, the zoo authority of Karnataka
with the department of Biotechnology, Government of India have jointly
started and completed this project in the year 2007 and opened to the
public visitors. The butterfly park has 30 species of butterfly
belonging to five families, they are Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymph,
Alidae, Lycaenidae, and Hesperiidae. But it differs from season to
season. A study reported that at times there are forty-eight species
butterflies in various seasons. And the best time to visit this park
is in between 10 to 3′ o clock.

The butterfly park is divided as a butterfly garden, a conservatory
enclosed under polycarbonate roof, research and captive breeding
laboratory and a museum. This is one of the unique projects in the
entire country and is worth a visit. Bannerghatta Butterfly Park is
adjacent to Bannerghatta National park which is located about 22
kilometers from Bangalore.