Chhattisgarh – Wild Buffalo
Common Name: Asiatic buffalo, wild water buffalo
Local Name: Arna/van bhainsa (Hindi), Jongli monsh (Bengali)
Scientific Name: Bubalus arnee
Description: The wild buffalo is a large, black and robust bovine with flat, sweeping horns. Males are larger in size and weigh around 800 to 1,200kg. The females are smaller in size and weigh about 250 to 800kg. Wild buffalo possess two types of horns: in one, the horns are curved upwards in a semicircle and almost meet at the tips. In others, the horns grow in a parallel manner upwards and then inwards. Wild buffaloes have a dark, grey-colored body that tends to be wet, black, and almost hairless.
Distribution: Wild buffaloes are native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are found in small, isolated pockets in North-East India in Kaziranga, Dibru-Saikhowa, Laokhawa-Bura Chapori, and Manas National Park in Assam; and in Central India in Indravati, Bhairamgarh, and Udanti Wildlife Sanctuaries of Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Threats: Habitat loss of floodplain areas due to the conversion to agriculture and hydropower development; Degradation of wetlands due to invasive species such as stem twiners and lianas; Diseases and parasites transmitted by domestic livestock; Interspecific competition for food and water between wild water buffaloes and livestock.