Barasingha Reintroduction

The Hard ground Barasingha (Cervus duvauceli branderi), has been reintroduced into the Satpura tiger reserve to establish a new and separate population of this endangered deer family. The Hard ground Barasingha more commonly known as the Hard Ground or Central Indian Barasingha is an endangered species which was endemic to the Kanha National Park of Madhya Pradesh. It is a sub-species of the Indian swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli duvauceli), and a North Indian subspecies occurs mainly in the Dudhwa national park in Uttar Pradesh, another one more North-Indian sub-species (Cervus duvauceli ranjitsinghi), found in the Kaziranga National Park, Assam.

The present area comprising Satpura Tiger Reserve used to support this endangered deer species until around the 1920s and its total disappearance has now conclusively been attributed to Habitat loss and poaching. STR is among several areas lying in the former distribution range of the hard ground barasingha. Until 2015, Kanha tiger reserve supported the only free ranging population of this deer in the county. Over several decades, dedicated technical management at Kanha ensured a gradual increase in its population, and more or less reversed the chances of its future decline. However, as it was deemed technically incorrect and risky to restrict the entire population of an endangered animal to only one place, after due process STR was selected to establish a geographically separated second home for the deer.

The grasslands of STR also support a large number of palatable grass species and good water bodies for this deer species. Besides, the abandoned village lands had also been integrated into the surrounding wildlife habitat through habitat improvement works. Accordingly, a founder population of around 90 animals have been reintroduced to STR since 2015. A large number of conservation initiatives, including the construction of an in-situ enclosure for soft release, were undertaken before the start of this relocation programme. The details of the barasingha reintroduction programme are as under:

Presently, there is a free ranging population of 67 Barasingha in Bori meadows, and 27 in Malini meadows of Churna range. Besides, 35 animals are still in captivity for multiplication to be gradually released in future. Thus the total count of Barasingha currently is 129. The STR management is gradually grasping the science and art of Barasingha conservation, and this second home is well on its way to becoming another stronghold of the hard ground barasingha in Madhya Pradesh.