Once ubiquitous, the jackal is fading into silence
Times of India | 4 months ago | |
Times of India
4 months ago | |
At dusk, a symphony of curious sounds invariably emerges from the verdant mangrove forest along the River Sal. For the villagers of Sirlim and Chinchinim on its eastern bank, these are the howls of Indian jackals — erroneously referred to as foxes. But some strangers may be a little puzzled, as the wild canids that once ran riot in broad daylight have seemingly disappeared from most villages.While there may be no need to introduce them like cheetahs, since Salcete’s mangrove forests continue to be a pristine habitat for them, it is also true that their population has drastically depleted over the years.Till a few years ago, it wasn’t unusual to see packs of jackals prowling around the villages near the mangroves even during the day. “Now they are hardly seen near the highway or internal roads at Sirlim-Chinchinim, but at night, we can hear them howling occasionally,” said Dom Noronha, former chairman of the Dramapur-Sirlim biodiversity management committee (BMC). This, he argues, proves that their local habitat is still untouched, and perhaps they feel safer in it.The Sal, flowing down the Verna plateau, has an idyll patch of about 8sqkm of fields and mangroves from Bondorim in Sirlim of Dramapur panchayat and Deussua in Chinchinim panchayat.A few decades ago, jackals freely trotted around in diverse habitats across the state — from thickly carpeted fields and sandy coastal areas to shrubs in midland and forests in the hinterland. Often, they would break into settlement areas. The squealing of piglings and cries of chickens would alert households rather late about their presence, as they swiftly escaped into the fields. Immortalised in mandos — Bannavlechea monte sokolo and its variant, Siolechea dongra sokolo rodtai kole, choi choi — the state had a good population of these animals. Deeply embedded in local folklore, tales of their wisdom, cunning, and swiftness excited the young and the old.As recently as four years ago, a jackal attacked two children in Bicholim, but forest officials attributed it to an act of aggression shown by a mother jackal to protect its puppies. Otherwise, jackals were known to be shy and elusive. “I have seen a few of them in villages near Bicholim town,” said Amrut Singh, an animal rescuer. The depletion of Goa’s jackal population has not been studied so far, but universally, factors range from the fragmentation of habitats due to a decline in agricultural traditions, to urbanisation, and reduction of food availability.“Even though jackals can adapt to changes in the land, these animals require natural sites free of human interference for denning purposes,” Malaika Mathew Chawla, a researcher, stated in her note on jackals. Her study with five others from a Margao-based college helped showcase the small population of these mesocarnivores along the Dramapur-Chinchinim belt in 2018.Jackals, like other scavenging animals, provide valuable ecosystem services. “But like other mesocarnivores, they are rarely appreciated for these services of waste removal and reducing the spread of disease,” Chawla said.Locals blame the construction of the Deussua-highway link road for traffic over the Orlim bridge from coastal Salcete and its recent expansion for majorly disturbing their movements, as a couple of roadkills have been reported in a year. “Just five years ago, we had a good jackal population. When the chapel bells tolled for the Angelus at dusk, a full pack would start howling. But recent roadkills are worrisome,” said Mabel Noronha, chairperson, Chinchinim BMC. “Animals become easy roadkills as they cannot negotiate engineered structures like roads,” said Manoj Borkar, senior academic and biologist.The conservation of jackal habitat is a sensitive subject for biodiversity managers. “If one species disappears, it brings stress to bear upon the other species, as the ecological balance will be disturbed. Hence, wildlife underpasses or corridors are important for their conservation,” Mabel said.Chawla agrees. “Panchayats should play a crucial role by avoiding mindless concretisation of bundhs, landfilling, hill cutting, and mangrove felling. The lack of awareness and will among planners, policy-makers, municipal and panchayat bodies, and in particular the BMCs, result in these bodies becoming mere tokenism,” she said.Borkar suggests a collective effort to reduce man-animal conflict. “The state has a focus on wildlife in its protected areas (PAs) but there is also an impressive diversity of animals and plants beyond the PAs that share space with us. The state agencies must collaborate with people to reduce the conflict with such species and help them to coexist,” Borkar said.
