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No import of Indian bison in the offing 

26 Oct 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake The import of gaurs or Indian bison to Sri Lanka in an attempt to revive the species’ population on the island, which has been extinct since the end of the 17th Century, will not take place at present, according to Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Secretary R.M.C.M. Herath. Speaking to The Morning, Herath said that the Director General of Wildlife Conservation has confirmed that there are no plans to move forward in this regard.  Reporting on this matter, The Hindu earlier stated that if the project is cleared, it would be the first such agreement between India and Sri Lanka and part of a global trend of wildlife or zoological diplomacy, regarding which, the report went to say, the Ministry of External Affairs received a request in August and has been now forwarded to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, seeking comments on the proposal to transport at least six specimens, including a bull and three to five cows.  According to the written proposal, the Sri Lankan Department of Zoological Gardens would then carry out captive breeding of a herd of about a dozen specimens over a five-year period before trial reintroduction to the wild could take place in accordance with the internationally mandated guidelines for reintroductions of species to the wild.  Indian National Tiger Conservation Authority Director S.P. Yadav said that the proposal was being studied. “We’ll have to evaluate if the conditions for translocation are right, such as whether the animal can sustainably thrive over there,” he told The Hindu, estimating that the evaluation could take a few months. The suggestion for the proposal came from Sri Lankan conservationist Rohan Pethiyagoda. The Hindu reported that according to Sri Lankan officials, the gaur called the “gavara” in Sinhala, was once widespread and that archaeological remains in ancient caves on the island include the remains of the animal. By the end of the 17th Century, however, the species appears to have been extirpated in Sri Lanka, although they remain prominent in iconography and mythological stories. The Indian gaur, a reclusive beast that lives in the wild, is the largest wild bovine that is a protected species and included in Schedule One of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and listed as vulnerable in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. There are about 13,000 to 30,000 gaurs in the world, with approximately 85% of the population present in India.  Meanwhile, speaking to The Morning, an environmentalist also confirmed that while there is no immediate threat as such for the moment, the process of this proposal would have mass-scale effects, which therefore has to be considered carefully.  


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