Volunteers ensure water for Aarey animals amid lockdown

Picture/Ashish Rane

With the onset of summer, some of the natural water sources in the Aarey forest are beginning to dry up. Wildlife volunteers from Aarey have thus begun filling up the artificial waterholes in the area regularly despite the lockdown.

A group of independent volunteers has been helping the Thane Forest Department territorial in tracing the movement of leopards inside Aarey Milk Colony with the help of camera traps.

Most of these volunteers, staying inside Aarey, are, therefore, ensuring that the artificial water holes created for birds and animals are filled with water on a regular basis.

Many other NGOs too are working for wildlife and animal welfare in Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region and are currently doing whatever they can to take care of stray cats and dogs during the lockdown.

"Usually during the summer, animals come closer to human settlements in search of water. We are, therefore, filling up the artificial water holes while maintaining social distance. Not more than two volunteers come together to do this work," Satish Lot, one of the volunteers said.

The authorities at Sanjay Gandhi National Park have also increased patrolling in the forest to ensure that there are no crowds venturing into the forests.

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