Cachar Forest Division releases Slow Loris at Dholai Biodiversity; Sch 1 mammal got stuck in a house

South Dholai’s Khaspur village had a different visitor on Friday attracting the attention of the residents. A Slow Loris – a mammal classified as Schedule I under Indian Wildlife Protection (ACT) 1972 entered the residence of a retired Electricity Department employee Sitaram Mali. He saw the creature running around in his house and eventually getting stuck at a passage near the ceiling of the house.

Mali says he has rescued the mammal from the passage and kept it in a trap. At the same time, he informed the local Forest Range about the same. The Cachar Forest Division’s Dholai Hawaithang deployed officials and rescued the mammal.

Parthankar Choudhury, Professor, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University Silchar identified the mammal as Slow Loris, (Nycticebus bengalensis). Speaking with Barak Bulletin, the professor said, “Two species of lorises are found in india. Slow & Slender loris. While slow loris is evident in almost all the northeastern states, the Slender loris is mostly found in South India and Srilanka.”

He added, “Many tribal communities of northeast kill slow lorises for traditional medicinal purposes. Besides, habitat shrinkage and scarcity of food have resulted in steep decline in population throughout the range of distribution of the species.”

From the forest division, Dilip Sinha supervised the rescue and release of the recovered Slow Loris. The mammal was escorted to the hospital and after a routine check-up, it was released in the Dholai Bio Diversity Park. The Forest official said that the species was spotted frequently in the years gone by, however, they are rare these days.