Nagpur, June 19, 2019: A two-day training workshop on “Wildlife Investigation through Forensic Techniques” for NNTR and Buffer Zone field staff was held on 12 – 13th June 2019 in Gondia.

From the last two years, there have been several wild animal/bird deaths under conditions not known, in the buffer zone area of Navegaon- Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) in Gondia district. These deaths continued until this year also during the summer season. In some of the cases, samples were collected and sent for forensic and pathological examinations to various labs, but unfortunately, in most of the cases, the results were inconclusive due to samples getting contaminated or unfit due to multiple reasons.

A study done by Wild CER revealed that in most of the cases, the samples are not collected properly using right preservatives, labelling and transportation. According to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the states that receive the highest samples of the tiger for examinations, but Maharashtra has the highest number of samples collected being inconclusive. Besides these, the health of wild animals is also not monitored to keep a check on the transfer of zoonotic diseases between humans and wildlife that can be a threat to both humans and wildlife equally.

Both Wild CER and Wildlife Trust of India came together to address this knowledge gap in the frontline staffs of NNTR and Buffer Zone territorial staff of Gondia and Bhandara division, and a one-day training workshop was held for the frontline staff at Nawegaon and Nagzira. Technical resource persons gave the training – Dr A.B. Shrivastav- Retd HoD, School of Wildlife Forensic and Health, Jabalpur, Dr Priya Bhaviskar – Asst. Professor, Nagpur Veterinary College and Dr Bahar Bhaviskar – Director, Wild CER and attended by 122 frontline staff of NNTR and Gondia and Bhandara forest divisions.

The training briefed on introduction to the forensic study and its scope, collection, preservation for various types of examinations to be done, right packing, labelling and delivery of the samples, scat collection and health monitoring. Demo of sample collection equipment was also given to the participants.

NNTR Field Director and CF –  M. Ramanujam, Deputy Field Direct – Poonam Pate, DFO (WL) – Uttam Sawant extended their support in organizing the training along with Assistant Conservators of Forest (ACFs) – Pradeep Patil, Shrikant Pawar and  Sadgir along with Anil Kumar, Manager – WTI.