PfA Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Centre

The famous American author Daniel Quinn once quoted, ‘The world doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the world.’ When mankind is still squabbling over the ownership of the earth, recent global events suggest that nature has already activated the Clock of Retribution. Amid this mess, there is still some light at the end of the tunnel. Stories like that of ‘Anju’ show that to us. Recently, PfA Wildlife Hospital and Rescue centre in Kengeri, took aboard an Indian Bonnet Macaque that was severely injured. Our veterinarian team at PfA found out that the injuries were nearly fatal and the macaque would not have survived if not for the benevolence of Dr Indu who decided to rescue her from the roadside of Chikkaballapur and bring her down to the hospital at Kengeri. After a detailed check-up, it was suspected that the macaque has a head injury. She was rendered blind by that horrid accident and was not able to move around.  We were put in a difficult position and decided ...

Why do we need Wildlife Hospitals in cities like Bangalore? What is a wildlife hospital doing in a city? We often face this question when we work with the public to spread awareness about ecological conservation and wildlife protection. The answer could be unearthed from another couple of questions. Are people aware of the fact that Bangalore is only second to Delhi in its urban wildlife density amongst the metro cities in India? Have we appreciated the role of ecology and wildlife in shaping the city as we know it today? Bangalore, The Garden City of India, was built and thrived around the Raja Kaluves or Canals. These canals and the ecology surrounding it played a significant role in the city’s flourish and this noteworthy ecological balance has been the face of Bangalore until recently. The canopy of trees that adorned the roadsides are fast disappearing, the climate of the city is undergoing drastic changes, the lakes that were critical in the city’s sustainability are t...

Have you ever spotted a small and slender primate, with soft dense fur, lean limbs, large ears and large bulging eyes, floating on the treetops whilst strolling through the parks or green patches of our city? A vast majority of people in our city wouldn’t have heard about Slender lorises, let alone they know the fact that these elusive furry creatures could be sharing our neighbourhoods. Slender lorises (Loris) are a genus of loris native to India and Sri Lanka. These animals are about 25 cm long and weigh around 275 grams. The slender loris spends most of its life in trees (arboreal), travelling along the top of branches with slow and precise movements. It is found in tropical rainforests, scrub forests, semi-deciduous forests, and swamps. The species have lifespans of 15 years and are nocturnal. Slender lorises generally feed on insects, reptiles, shoots of plants, and fruits. With a small, vestigial tail, their most distinguishing feature is the pair of two large, cl...

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...

Remember Into the wild - the biographical adventure drama directed by Sean Penn based on the book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer? It’s an adventure survival drama that falls into most of our best movies list. If you haven’t read or watched it yet, it tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a man who hiked across North America into the Alaskan wilderness. The book, also the movie, meticulously shows the difficulties of a man who is alone in the wild. So, let’s think about that from a different perspective now. How do you think a wild animal would feel or behave when they are displaced from their natural habitat .ie wild and brought to an urban landscape? Much similar to a fish out of the water, agree? Keeping aside the critical importance of wildlife and its habitat in our survival, isn’t it apparent that wild animals should be allowed to live in their natural habitat without any human intervention? We believe in that philosophy and that’s why rehabilitat...