Jamshedpur, May 16: The East Singhbhum district administration and forest officials of Dhalbhum and Seraiklea heaved a sigh of relief on the relatively peaceful culmination of the Sendra festival.
The motley groups of tribal who climbed up the Dalma forest on the night of Sunday in pursuit of celebrating the Sendra festival have not killed any animal, claimed the forest officials.
The forest officials have maintained that about 200 odd tribals including women members scaled Dalma forest to celebrate the traditional Buru Sendra festival but during the course of their stay they desisted from hunting wild animals.
“The awareness campaign that was carried out by forest department in association with eco club members of the 80 odd villages that fall within the Dalma forest area has paid off. On record I can say not a single animal has been hunted by the tribals,” asserted, a forest officer, Dhalbhum.
He added that from Sunday evening the forest department officials along with the handful of NGO personnel and Eco club members camped at all routes linking to Dalma hilltop and persuaded the potential hunters to desist from indulging in any kind of activities that might disturb the ecology of the green surroundings.
However amidst tight security arrangements tribals managed to kill two wild boars and a barking deer while celebrating Sendra at Dalma wildlife sanctruary today. A sizeable number of tribal had climbed the Dalma with their traditional weapons like bows, arrows, spears and choppers.
Hundreds of tribals started converging at the sprawling 192 sq km sanctuary since late last evening. They killed the animals after searching the jungles for hours together.
On confirmed reports suggest that there were some group of tribal who successfully killed wild boars and some other mammals during the day-long Bishu Shikar festival.
Interestingly, there was some other Bishu Shikar revelers were seen carrying some chicks on their palms as a symbol of hunting festival while returning from Dalma.
Dalma range officer R P Singh claimed not a single animal has been killed. �Though we have seized nets and traps from the sanctuary but no animal has been killed,� he said, adding tight security arrangements had been made to prevent hunting and killing of animals.
Police constables from East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan were also deployed for preventing tribals from entering the sanctuary will non-traditional weapons. Moreover, divisional railway managers of Chakradharpur and Adra divisions had been asked to deploy magistrates to prevent tribals from boarding trains with weapons.
It may be mentioned that the forest department, a two weeks before the festival, had launched an awareness campaign among tribals, following which they had not only assured to protect the animals, but promised to convince others not to kill animals during the annual ritual.
Nevertheless, Dalma Buru Sendra Samity (DBSS) has said that in spite of the large presence of police and forest, the tribals have celebrated the festival in a traditional manner, but in a limited way.
“No denying the fact that the large presence of police and forest officials foiled our plans to some extent as far as celebrating the Sendra festival in traditional manner is concerned. But still we managed to hunt a dear in the dense forest of Dalma,” claimed a functionary of DBSS.
