Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel chaired the 23rd meeting of the State Board for Wildlife today, and instructed the forest department to conduct a preliminary survey for declaring the protected forest area of 69,668.51 hectares of two divisions of the Surat forest circle as a sanctuary.

Accordingly, field officers of the Forest Department will conduct a primary survey of flora, and fauna in the forest areas across 7 ranges, namely Umarpada, Vadpada, Mandvi North and South,  Kherwada, Tapti, and Vajpur of Surat district.

15 proposals for laying underground optical fiber cables, installations of mobile towers, and construction of roads in 7 sanctuaries were presented before the Chief Minister in this meeting. Such works approved in the meeting will take place in the Ghudkhar Sanctuary,  in Kutch, Balaram-Ambaji, Narayan Sarovar, Gir, Jambughoda, and Shulpaneshwar sanctuary areas.

Forest Minister Mr. Mulubhai Bera, Minister of State Mr. Mukeshbhai Patel, Chief Secretary Mr. Rajkumar, and other officials made various suggestions in this meeting.

The meeting also discussed the forest department’s long-term protective measures and operations against incidents of human conflict caused by leopards in the state.

Senior Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Nityanand Srivastava made an elaborate presentation, highlighting that action is being taken to procure enough tranquilizer guns to tranquilize aggressive leopards.

As the human population density in South Gujarat is high, plans are underway to purchase 10 cages per taluka to catch leopards if they come around human populations.

The department has initiated radio-collaring of leopards, along with procuring trap cameras to study their behavior and monitor their movements. Five leopards have already been radio-collared.

Details were also provided about the ongoing process of setting up two new rescue centers in Surat and Valsad in South Gujarat, in addition to recently commissioned rescue centers at Pavagadh and Jambughoda.

Chief Secretary Mr. Rajkumar suggested that the Forest Department plan for a Rehabilitation Center as a long-term solution to resettle leopards in protected forest areas away from human populations. DeshGujarat