28th February
by Dr Pradeep Mishra
Day 13 of the IWAH training focused on restraint in wild animals. The participants were divided into small groups and each group took turns in to understand the procedure, planning and induction, monitoring, recovery and emergencies, remote delivery system equipment and remote delivery system practice. Each station included discussion and brainstorming with the tutors. The exposure to various guns and rifles was an eye-opener as each wildlife organization has a monotonous delivery system and not much is known about other delivery systems.
The practice with darting guns was a different experience altogether. The Dan Inject delivery system was available to dart a dummy placed 27 m away in the bushes. Each of the participants in the group took turns in darting and surprisingly each one of us could hit the target accurately. This was followed by the use of the blowpipe. The handy tool was challenging as delivery depended on the force that could be generated by the lungs.
The day had two special occasions, the Member of Parliament from Dausa Hon’ble Jas Kaur Meena visited the Sariska palace and expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the training at Sariska. She also expressed concern over the depleting forest cover in the region and stressed the need for community participation in the conservation of wildlife and nature. The day ended on a lighter note with the birthday celebration of two participants Rajesh and Charmaine. The day definitely was memorable in many ways. Firstly, we learnt a lot about chemical capture and secondly, we perfected the learnings through the use of the equipment. Looking forward to a more challenging field application of the learnings.
Untill then…