In a major conservation initiative, the Chhattisgarh Forest Department is preparing a new translocation programme to save the state’s critically endangered wild buffalo (Bubalus arnee), the official state animal. The plan involves bringing wild buffaloes from Assam to establish a genetically healthy breeding population in southern Chhattisgarh.
The proposed animals will be housed initially in specially designed enclosures at Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary in Bijapur district before being released into suitable habitats. The project aims to strengthen the dwindling wild buffalo population, which has suffered from habitat loss, disease, hybridisation with domestic buffaloes, and decades of insurgency-related challenges.
Chhattisgarh once supported a thriving population of wild buffaloes, but today only a handful of genetically pure individuals remain in the wild. Earlier translocation efforts from Assam helped boost numbers, but conservationists believe additional animals are essential to ensure long-term genetic diversity and species survival.
The initiative will be carried out in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department, whose protected areas, particularly Kaziranga and Manas, hold the world’s largest remaining population of wild water buffaloes. Experts view the programme as a crucial step in preventing the local extinction of one of India’s most endangered large mammals.
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