Forest dept to scan 15,500 sq km to count Indian wild asses next week

Nityanand Srivastava, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat, presided over a workshop at Dhrangadhra, the headquarters of the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Surendranagar, on Wednesday to train officers for the ’10th Wild Ass Population Estimation’ on May 21 and 22.

S K Srivastava, Additional PCCF (research and training); Sandeep Kumar, Conservator of Forests (CF) of Kutch territorial forest circle and Raj Sandeep, CF of Gandhinagar wildlife circle also attended the workshop and guided assistant conservator of forests (ACFs) and range forest officers (RFOs) about the census to be conducted over an area of 15,500 sq km.

Indian wild asses belong to the Equidae family whose members include horses and mules, among others. Locally called Ghudkhar and Khar, they are larger than donkeys but smaller than horses in size.

Equus Hemionus Khur is one of the two sub-species of Indian wild assess. The other sub-species is Tibetan wild ass or Kiang (Equus Hemionus Kiang), which is native to Tibentan plateau and is found in India, China, Nepal and Pakistan. However, Little Rann of Kutch and Great Rann of Kutch and their peripheral areas in Gujarat are the only place in the world where Ghudkhar are surviving. Ghudkhars have learnt to survive by grazing vegetation of desert ecology. Their population in 2020 was estimated to be 6,082, spread over Surendranagar and Morbi in Saurashtra, Kutch district, Ahmedabad district in central Gujarat and Patan and Banaskantha in north Gujarat.

Speaking to The Indian Express, S K Srivastava said, “We are using some more technologies this time to ensure accuracy. Enumerators will make data entries on our e-Gujforest mobile phone application from the spot wild asses are sighted. This will give us more locational data and timeline, helping avoid duplication. Also, many of our officers have personal drone cameras and camera traps. We will allow them to use the same to count the number of wild asses in a herd and also cover as much area as possible,” he added.

“During summer, herds of wild asses remain concentrated around water holes, making it easy to count them. Also, many parts of wild ass habitat remains inaccessible during other seasons and census exercise is not advisable then.”

Dhaval Gadhvi, Deputy Conservator of Forests of the Wild Ass Sanctuary said that the census will be conducted over 15,500 sq km spread over six circles of Gujarat forest department – Gandhinagar wildlife circle (in which Wild Ass Sanctuary falls), Gandhinagar, Junagadh and Kutch territorial forest circles as well as Ahmedabad and Mehsana social forestry circles. The area of exercise will also include Kutch Desert Sanctuary in Great Rann of Kutch.

“Around 370 teams, comprising approximately five members each will undertake counting of wild asses from 6 am to 7 pm on both days,” Gadhvi said, adding that besides around 700 forest department staffers, help of around 1,500 volunteers and local residents will also be taken in the exercise.