Rare mouse-deer spotted in Sathupalli forest
Sathupalli Forest Range Officer (FRO) A Venkateswaralu, speaking to Telangana Today on Wednesday, said the Indian spotted Chevrotain (Moschiola Indica) also known as Indian mouse-deer was spotted by locals on Tuesday.
Khammam: A rare mouse deer which was spotted in the forests at Sathupalli in Khammam has been shifted to Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary in Kothagudem.
Sathupalli Forest Range Officer (FRO) A Venkateswaralu, speaking to Telangana Today on Wednesday, said the Indian spotted Chevrotain (Moschiola Indica) also known as Indian mouse-deer was spotted by locals on Tuesday.
On receiving information from locals, the forest officials took possession of the mammal, which was about three months old and shifted it to a Mouse-Deer Park at Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary.
Steps would be taken to trace out the remaining family members of the mouse-deer which was found in Kommepalli forests near the SCCL’s JVR opencast mine and to protect their habitat, Venkateswaralu said.
The mammal is a Schedule-1 animal as per the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. A mouse-deer was spotted in camera traps in the forests of Ramavaram in Kothagudem district a year ago but the animal was not found anywhere in Khammam district in recent times, he noted.
Though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the mouse-deer in the ‘least concern’ category, the animal was rare in the State and its distribution was not wide in Telangana, he added.
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