Kaziranga : Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) innovative concept of mobile veterinary ambulances has appealed to a premier Indian National Oil company. Oil India Limited has sponsored a unit under the “Mobile Veterinary Service” project initiated by WTI for rescue and relief operations in Manas National Park in lower Assam .

Mobile veterinary service (MVS) units located in the northeast are instrumental in attending to emergency calls about distressed and displaced wildlife that require on the spot treatment or transport to other locations for surgical interventions, rehabilitation or release.

According to Arjun Nayar, Programme Officer WTI, “They liked the idea of vet on wheels from the start and our proposal was readily accepted by them. The maintenance costs of each MVS unit vary on a year to year basis depending on the number of operations conducted by it during a financial year. However on a yearly basis we spend about four lakhs for each Mobile Veterinary Service Unit (MVS) stationed in the northeast. This generous help from Oil India would at least tide away some of our difficulties in the current year due to paucity of funds at Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC)”.

Presently, the five vehicles run as MVS units in the northeast were sponsored by the wildlife division of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) had also presented a vehicle to WTI to be stationed at Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal.

Dr. NVK Ashraf, Director Wild Rescue WTI said, “Currently there are three MVS units operating in Assam; one each in Dibru Saikhowa National Park in upper Assam, Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) in Kaziranga and Manas National Park in lower Assam. The money from Oil India would go towards the MVS unit in lower Assam ”.

“Apart from these units, we also have two ambulances, one in Garo Hills in Meghalaya and the other at Pakke in Arunachal Pradesh for rescue and release operations. In future, we also want to set up MVS units in Kerala and Maharashtra ”, he further adds.

A number of forest reserves and the Manas National Park in lower Assam are home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. The MVS unit of lower Assam attends to this wide variety of fauna, such as leopards, tigers, rhinos, water buffaloes, elephants and jungle cats.

Other key objectives of this programme are to create an immune belt by vaccinating livestock in protected areas for prevention of disease outbreaks. R outine health monitoring operations are also conducted through disease surveillance exercises, surveys and disease impact assessment. Wildlife translocation operations are undertaken for the purpose of reintroduction, restocking and managing problem animals.

At a time when wildlife conservation is a low priority issue, it is hoped that Oil India ’s gesture will keep the wheels of relief running to provide succor to the fauna of this World Heritage Site in the northeast.