Bringing Back Manas

Table: 1 Percentage of mammalian, avian and
reptilian cases retained in captivity before their
release.
Class Days in captivity before Number
release released
0-2 days 3-30 days 31-180
days
Mammals 33% 46% 21% 26
Birds 43% 43% 14% 14
Reptiles 86% 14% 0% 37
All classes 60% 29% 11% 77
are laid to capture wildlife, some of which get
confiscated, either at the source of capture itself or in
the local market. The next most common reason was
found to be indiscriminate capture of wildlife that
requires no intervention. With the increasing amount
of awareness being created by the MVS unit, this
cause of displacement will predictably show a decline
in future. All these cases of wildlife displacement only
go on to show that human-wildlife conflict is high in
the BTC region.
Wildlife health support
Fig.163 Cause of displacement of wildlife admitted to MVS, Lower Assam
Captive elephant care: Assam is the home to more
than 1,200 captive elephants, a fraction of which are
stationed in the National Parks and Wildlife
Sanctuaries. Like providing wildlife health support to
free living wildlife, captive elephant care is also a
mandate of all MVS units of Assam. Since 2000, MVS
vets have been called for attending to more than 300
cases of captive elephants in and around Kaziranga,
Dibru-Saikhowa and Manas National Parks.
Elephants are treated largely for wounds and
abscesses including those caused due to pododermatitis
and cutaneous filariasis.
Manas National Park has 27 captive elephants that
need constant medical attention. Apart from these,
there are hundreds of privately owned captive
elephants in Lower Assam that depend on the forests
for grazing and browsing. The service of the MVS
veterinarian is called upon whenever these elephants
130 Bringing Back Manas