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News: The Governing Body of National CAMPA approved four major wildlife and forestry conservation projects focusing on River Dolphins, Snow Leopards, Indian Rhinoceros, and Wild Water Buffalo to boost species population monitoring and habitat protection across India.
About Wild Water Buffalo
- About: It is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
- It is also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo.
- Scientific name: Its scientific name is Bubalus arnee.
- Habitat: It inhabits wet grasslands, swamps, flood plains and densely vegetated river valleys.
- Distribution: The wild water buffalo occurs in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Cambodia, with an unconfirmed population in Myanmar.
- It has been extirpated in Bangladesh, Laos, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
- In India, it is largely restricted to in and around Kaziranga, Manas and Dibru-Saikhowa National Parks, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary and Bura Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary and in a few scattered pockets in Assam, and in and around D’Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh.
- A small population survives in Balphakram National Park in Meghalaya, and in Chhattisgarh in Indravati National Park and Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Characteristics:
- It has an ash-gray to black skin.
- The moderately long, coarse and sparse hair is directed forward from the haunches to the long and narrow head.
- There is a tuft on the forehead, and the ears are comparatively small.
- Size: Its head-to-body-length is 240 to 300 cm (94 to 118 in).
- Both sexes carry horns that are heavy at the base and widely spreading up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) along the outer edges, exceeding in size the horns of any other living bovid.
- The tip of the tail is bushy and the hooves are large and splayed.
- Weight: It weighs from 600 to 1,200 kg.
- It is among the heaviest living wild bovid species, and is slightly smaller than gaur.
- Diet: It prefers grazing on grasses and sedges, but also eats herbs, fruits, bark, and foliage. Additionally, it feeds on crops like rice, sugarcane, and jute, often causing significant damage.
- Behaviour: It is both diurnal and nocturnal.
- Threat: The wild water buffalo’s decline is driven by:
- Habitat loss
- Colonial-era sport hunting, and
- Livestock pressures like disease, competition, and interbreeding
- Conservation status:
- IUCN: Endangered
- CITES: Appendix III
