PfA Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Centre

The Garden City is well known for its wildlife heritage. The city has green patches spread over which is home to several wild species, from the common ones like Black Kites, Squirrels, Parakeets and Bonnet Macaques to species that we are not even aware that they live amongst us in a city like Slender Lorises, Spotted Deer, Civet Cats, Pangolins and so on. More often than not these animals move into populous areas to evade an attack or in search of food and water. This also led to a rise in wildlife rescues recently.  Our rescue team has rescued several peacocks from populous areas in recent months. Recently, PFA rescue team rescued an injured peacock from Vidyapeeta Ashrama in Kengeri. Mr Mohan, a Rescue specialist at PFA, said that the peacock was not able to fly when they reached the location for its rescue. Dr Karthik, Chief Veterinarian at PfA, says ‘The peacock had a head injury when it was brought in, for which it is undergoing treatment. The injury is possibly due ...

Is the conservation of urban wild animals directly connected to the sustainability of a fast-growing city like Bangalore?  Old Bangaloreans are constantly reminiscing about how the city was a couple of decades ago. The green aura of our city, for which it is famous for, is fast diminishing. The ‘Garden City of India’ has lost one-fourth of its green cover and one-third of its lakes in recent decades. With the current trend of depleting groundwater, our city as we know will soon turn out to be a mirage from the past. Any growing city’s ecological sustainability is deeply connected to the state of its urban wildlife population. Natural green cover proliferation, vector and disease control, the impact on soil - all have connections to urban wildlife, much like in a wholly natural ecosystem.  We have been conducting awareness events across the city to sensitise Bangaloreans on Environmental Conservation and Urban Wildlife Protection. There has been a dramatic change in t...

Bangalore is second only to Delhi while we consider the urban wildlife density of Indian cities. Bordered by a thick forest canopy, it’s not just the outskirts of Bangalore that have a green shade to them. The city has many green patches running through it which is home to high biodiversity. From parakeets, squirrels and kites to owls, pangolins and deer, we would certainly get to know how diverse our neighbourhood is if we care enough to notice! We often see troops of Indian Bonnet Macaque wandering the rooftops and climbing the treetops of the city. Unfortunately, some people consider them as a nuisance while it’s certain that they become a nuisance only when we interfere. Proper awareness would certainly enable us to live peacefully with other creatures like them. For instance, there are examples where urban residential communities have learned to peacefully coexist with Macaques. Feeding the straying macaques is not advisable according to the experts. However, it could be do...