The Sikkim forest department is planning an aerial survey of Kanchenjungha National Park

Gangtok, Nov. 10: The Sikkim forest department is planning an aerial survey of Kanchenjungha National Park next week to assess if the bio-diversity hotspot has suffered damage or wildlife was killed in the September quake.

There have been no reports of any wildlife deaths from the other reserve forests and wildlife sanctuaries of the state but large tracts of KNP spread over 1784sqkm in the West and North districts are remote and almost inaccessible.

“The difficulty in reaching these remote areas prompted the forest department to conduct the aerial survey next week. It is difficult to access the remote parts and it will take days to reach there. We want to do an aerial recce of KNP in both West and North districts by the third week of November to check out how much damage has occurred,” said state forest secretary N.T. Bhutia.

Bhutia added that the actual ground-level damage could be understood from the aerial survey but it was possible to see evidences of large landslides that could have led to wildlife death or habitat displacement. “We cannot know the actual damage from air but if there have been major deaths or destruction, there should be evidence,” he said.

Senior forest officers will meet after the survey to deliberate on the future course of action. If required, assessment teams would then be sent to the KNP.

“So far we have not received any report of wildlife deaths caused by the earthquake in the other forests of Sikkim. Also, there were no reports of animal carcasses lying around in the forests. The forest personnel are in touch with the villagers and the forest management committees to know if there are any animal deaths. If there had been major wildlife casualties, I am sure that information would have reached us,” said Bhutia.

So far, the forest department, which has suffered a loss of Rs 13 crore in terms of infrastructure damage, had been busy preparing a report on the ravage unleashed by the quake.

All the departments in Sikkim had been asked to submit an assessment report on infrastructure damage to secure financial assessment from the Centre.

Bhutia said forest infrastructure like guest houses, quarters and boundary walls of sanctuaries had been hit by the quake. The assessment report on the damage has been submitted to the state relief commissioner recently.