Bhubaneswar: The population of Indian Bison or Gaur (Gayala in Odiya) has been estimated at 659 in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha’s Bargarh district.
The census of Indian Bison, which was carried out for the first time, was conducted on November 12 and 13 for assessment of their current population in the sanctuary, an official letter of district forest officer (DFO)m Hirakud Wildlife Division in Sambalpur district to the Regional Conservator of Forests stated.
The census put the overall population of Gaur at 659 including 210 juveniles comprising 30% of the total population. The Indian Bisons were seen in 52 herds. Herd size varied from 8 to 33. Massively built and strong bull weighing up to 1500 kg have also been recorded during Census.
The landscape wide exercise was taken up by direct observation technique/direct count by 53 census units with 114 team members from 6 am to 6 pm. Census was conducted by foot with systematic surveys along the forest roads, animal trails, water bodies, grasslands and meadows, saltlicks etc.
Each Beat in the sanctuary was stratified into small segments which were covered by separate teams to avoid overlapping. The tourism zone in Debrigarh Sanctuary has recorded presence of more than 100 Gaurs in 6 herds including few massively built adult Bulls. Three herds in the zone have more than a dozen Indian-Bison.
Age and sex classification could not be ascertained because of difficulty in identifying the seen animals due to dense forested areas and presence of tall grasses. But detection probability was around 80% for estimation of total population, implying that 20% of the population could have been missed due to restricted visibility and group movement creating hurdle in detection.
Indian Bison is one of the major herbivores of Debrigarh. They were predominantly seen in the foothills of Debrigarh in the meadows with food preference for grasses and browsable lants as well as fruits, leaves, bark, young shoots etc. They are seen to feed mostly on grasses or plants that are nutritious only during certain season. They are generalist feeders, both grazers and browsers.
Gaur, which is the largest and tallest wild cattle in the world, is a Schedule-1 animal in Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Vulnerable category in IUCN Red List. Nearly 85% of its world population is in India.
