Team Herald
MARGAO: Chinchinim Deussua villagers were told not to fear the jackals roaming in their village as they are extremely shy animals that run away when they see humans and are extremely adaptive animals who have now adapted to living close to human settlements.
The Chinchinim Biodiversity Committee organized a Jackal Awareness Programme as two final year students of Chowgule College had last year conducted a study of the animals in their village as part of their assignment and presented their findings.
Vaibhavi Naik and Jyotsna Dessai who had carried out the study during the last academic year said they had a questionnaire that was answered by one member of each household in the village besides they visited the mangroves and fields where jackals are usually found.
They said while there is no recorded sighting of any foxes in Goa what are called “Kole” in Konkani are actually the jackals and more precisely the Golden Jackal whose scientific name is Canis aureus. They said there are 13 sub species of this animal but a study has not yet been undertaken in Goa to find out which species is found here.
The study carried out in the villages of Sirlim, Bondorim and Deussua showed that the animals are omnivores and many people claimed to have seen a jackal every day while there were some who said to have seen them rarely.
By nature jackals are very adaptive and even their fur changes colour depending upon the season so that they can be camouflaged in their habitat.
Being a nocturnal animal it howls mostly at night which is actually a call for the pack members and also as a call to dogs that they had to leave as it was time for them to forage. The jackals in Deussua were also noted to be howling whenever the chapel bell chimed.
Jackals help the environment as they are scavengers that clean carcasses and also are known to kill snakes and rodents thereby acting as pest control. Besides they spread the seeds of jamun what are locally called “bhedsa” when they excrete.
Vaibhavi and Jyotsna asked the people to be careful while driving in the night particularly on the highways as jackals may that move out at that time may be hit and injured and in fact showed a video of a jackal crossing the highway in the village in night.
The assured the villagers that jackals will not attack them when one person pointed out that the large number of jackals in a particular area frightens people in the night to take that road. They suggested that garbage dumping in that area be stopped and the jackals will automatically stop coming there.
Rajat Chitari of the Solid Waste Management Corporation in his short presentation told what type of garbage they collect and urged the people not to burn plastic, rubber or thermocol and instead give it to the panchayat as they collect this waste.
“Segregation at source is the best way to tackle garbage,” he said pointing out that in future the labour presently used to segregate waste will not be available.
Mabel Menezes convener of the Chinchinim Biodiversity Committee welcomed the crowd that included Deputy Sarpanch Valentino Barreto along with three panchayat members and Range Forest Officer of the Forest Department Bipin Phaldessai.
