Hyena population suffers at MP
MHOW (MP): In forests adjoining Mhow district in Madhya Pradesh is facing fast declining in hyena population. They are increasingly falling prey to road mishap here.
Earlier the O P Sharma Mhow sub-divisional forest officer said, the hyenas were in plenty in this region but now its number has declined to 30 or 35.
Mhow, Badgonda, Choral and Manpur have a 20-km thick forest cover and hyenas with other animals like panther, wild boars, jackals and deer were once found in plenty in these places.
Sharma informed that earlier the number of hyenas in the region was 50, said adding that most of the hyenas died in road accidents. Some of them also died while they were undergoing treatment because of injuries, he added.
He said, though the injuries were similar to that of bullet wounds, it could not be said that poachers were responsible for it.
In fact, hyena is known as scavenging animal because it cleans the environment by eating the carcasses.
He stated, most of the deaths have occurred on the 22 km stretch between Pithampur and Gujri on the Rau-Khalghat four-lane road and also on the Agra-Bombay highway.
The poachers do not kill hyenas but many of them fell prey to the bullets of hunters who mistook them for other animals, Sharma said.
Also when the hyenas come out of the forest for prey or for water, they are run over by vehicles, as the ecological balance of the entire region is disturbed, there is not enough food for the survival of hyenas, he informed.
(News Editor- Naushin Fatima Khan)
