Tree Foundation Supports Conservation Of Indian Giant Squirrel In Odisha

Berhampur: Amid increasing threat to the Indian Giant Squirrel, popularly known as ‘Pata Musa’ or ‘Belara Musa’, a pilot project for its conservation has been launched with financial help from Chennai-based ‘Tree Foundation’. The project aims to estimate the population density of the squirrels.

“There are selected habitat patches of this Indian Giant Squirrel (Ratufa Indica) in Budhakhol of Kriamba Reserve Forest. They can also be found in Pandakhol Reserve Forest under Sorada Range and Jagannath Prasad Reserve Forest in Ganjam district and Mahendragiri Hills, Chandragiri and Lakhari Reserve Forest in Gajapati district,” said Uday Kumar Das, a senior wildlife biologist from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun. He is also the state coordinator for this project.

Uday Kumar Das and Chief Chairperson Supraja Dharini, who have a long vision of this dream project, launched awareness programmes in Suliapalli village of Buguda Forest Range under Ghumusur South Division of Ganjam. Such programmes would be conducted in coming days in the entire Ganjam district, Das said.

Das had given enough time in wildlife conservation in the early days prior to teaching professionals. He thanked Dr Supraja Dharini and is optimistic about the team working for the conservation of nature.

The project found that the squirrels prefer to nest in taller trees. The squirrels prefer to eat Xylia xylocarpa and Bauhinia vahlii. The current management practices damage the squirrels’ preferred nesting sites and food resources. The project also used GIS, distance software, and direct observation to study the squirrels. The project recorded observations in all seasons.

The Indian Giant Squirrels have a brownish dorsal coat colour and leap from one tree to another. This is one of the largest squirrels with a head–and–body length of 25 to 50 cm, a tail that is about the same size or somewhat longer and a weight of 1.5 kg to 3 kg, Das said.

The ‘Tree Foundation’ has also been working for sea turtle and mangrove conservation in Bahuda region of the state for the last 5 years.