New Delhi: For the first time, veterinarians and amateur wildlife enthusiasts in the north-east Indian states of Assam and Manipur were trained on wildlife rehabilitation.

The programme was organized under the Emergency Relief Network project of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Officials of WTI, forest department and veterinarians participated.

The workshop will help the participants in enhancing their skill-set for undertaking rescue and rehabilitation in the future, an expert who attended the workshop said.

Nearly, 50 veterinarians of the animal husbandry department under the Bodo Territorial Council participated in the first workshop held in Manas on October 8 and 9. In Manipur, the workshop was organized on October 12 and 13.

The role of zoos and captive facilities in wildlife rehabilitation, hand-raising and drug immobilization of wild animals, guidelines on re-introduction, rehabilitation of large mammals, were discused, besides a host of other issues.

The workshop was important, since, most of the veterinarians who attended the workshop had no prior exposure in wildlife restraint techniques, said Dr. N. V. K. Ashraf, Director Wild Rescue of WTI and one of the resource persons at the workshop.

Dr. Chabuagbam Sangeeta Devi, a veterinarian who works with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Imphal said, “The training has been very helpful. In my state, people are ignorant of wildlife rehabilitation and there is immense need for training. Whenever need arise, I would teach others on the techniques I have learnt.”

Nearly, four to five cases of wild rescue are reported every month by the Mobile Veterinary Service of WTI in Manas and from the adjoining areas of Lower Assam. The most commonly displaced mammals in Manipur are barking deer, slow loris and black bear.

Soon after the workshop, WTI staff and some of the participants released a rescued barking deer near Manipur zoo.

Pix credit: Omajit Leishangthem / Sangai Express