Jharkhand: Palamu Tiger Reserve ‘opens to children’
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK Daltonganj, February 5: Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) has hit upon a novel idea. It is to ‘open…
Children in the PTR
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, February 5: Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) has hit upon a novel idea. It is to ‘open to children’.
The idea is that children who will have their visit here will be the spokesperson for the tiger reserve as to what is here, what they saw and why everyone should care for this tiger reserve.
Deputy Director of the north division of PTR P K Jena said, “We have a module for children visiting us. We show them the habitat, wildlife etc. The children are delighted.”
Boys are curious about big species; girls are about birds
A biologist of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, in the PTR, Hrithik Dhami, said, “Boys ask about big species like tiger, leopard, elephant. Girls go for birds. A girl asked me about one small bird bee-eater. The girl was too happy to see King Fisher bird.”
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Eating habits of leopard, tiger
The children had intelligent questions with them. Dhami said they asked how eating is different for the leopard and tiger.
“I told them that a leopard does pounce on the neck of its victim but starts eating its stomach first if the leopard has succeeded in preying. A tiger, on the other hand, eats shoulder and thigh first.” Dhami said. Children heard this with rapt attention.
The children were shown the skulls of the Indian Gaur, also known as the bison and the elephant. Many children didn’t take their eyes off the skulls for long, recalled Dhami.
Like many others, the children were confused about deer. To them, a deer is a deer, whether spotted or barking one or four-horned antelope.
Spotted deer and barking deer
Dhami said, “I had to explain to them how a spotted deer is different from a barking deer and how both are different from the four-horned antelope.”
The children didn’t ask about the snakes. Palamu Tiger Reserve is a house of pythons and a few deadly species, like russel viper, karait, cobra, etc.
Dhami reminded that children know about domestic lizards. They looked familiar with it.
But for the monitor lizard, the children needed to be made aware of its size and features.
