page_title: Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary
section_title: Wildlife
hierarchical_section_title: Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary / Wildlife
caption_attribution_description: English: Crested Serpent Eagle at Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary in Nuapada, Odisha
context_page_description: Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary and a proposed tiger reserve located in the Nuapada district of Odisha, adjoining Chhattisgarh. It has a total area of 600 km². The sanctuary harbours a great diversity of wildlife habitats, with a vast plateau, multiple valleys, gorges and magnificent waterfalls. The sanctuary forms the catchment area of the Jonk River, over which a dam has been constructed to facilitate irrigation. The Indra nullah and Udanti River lies to the south of the sanctuary. The important vegetation of the site comprises dry deciduous tropical forest.
context_section_description: Typical central Indian wild mammals such as tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (P. pardus), Indian Gaur (Bos gaurus), sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), wild boar (Sus scrofa) and blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus) are found, although depleted by poaching. Among the non-human primates, common langur (Semnopithecus entellus) and rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) are very common. (Kotwal 1997). 
  Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary has certainly seen better days. It had swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli branderi) and Wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee).  Forests around Sunabeda used to have good numbers of Wild Buffalos till 1960s. Hunting, cattle borne disease and habitat destruction led to extinction of Wild Buffalo in the region. Unconfirmed and occasional movement of individuals are reported sometime near Sitanadi but that’s just a speculation. With the efforts of Chhattisgarh government, there is some chance that we could get back wild buffaloes in forests of Indravati and Sitanadi-Udanti but situation continues to be precarious.
  Same is the case of hardground Barasingha which were once seen on the plateaus till 1950s and they just vanished, wild buffaloes way. Today they are extinct and there is no chance of revival.
  Sunabeda is perhaps the only place left in Odisha which is now reporting Nilgai. They were in plenty earlier in the Sunabeda plateau but poaching has taken a toll over the years. Today they have also gone nocturnal. These all factors have resulted in dwindling big cat population. Due to scarcity of prey, cattle kills will go up in coming days and subsequently complete eradication of the big cats.
caption: Crested Serpent Eagle at Cherchuan entry point
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