कळसुबाईतील 'शेकरू' गणनेपासून, बांद्यातील 'शेकरू'च्या बागेपर्यंत | maharashtra state animal shekaru

Species & Habitats Awareness Programme.
The First Ever Wildlife Video Series In Marathi.

Director / Script - Akshay Mandavkar
Cinematography - Ketan Vaidya
Drone Cinematography - Suraj Bangal
Music Credit - https://artlist.io/
Executive Producer - Roshni Nadar Malhotra | Rushikesh Chavan | Kiran Shelar
Producer - The Habitats Trust | MAHA MTB


Shekaru: Indian Giant Squirrel
Ratufa indica
At dawn, a high-pitched note from a dense canopy awakens the sacred grove of Bhairoba. One can sight the movement of a squirrel-like animal in the branches of the canopy.
This Rufus-coloured animal can be seen running and hopping over the branches of trees.
This arboreal mammal is the Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica (called 'Shekaru' in Marathi).
Indian Giant Squirrel is adorned as the state animal of Maharashtra and known as an iconic species highlighting the rich biodiversity of the forest.
The presence of the Indian Giant Squirrel has given special recognition to the sacred grove of Bhairoba at Kalsubai-Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary.
To keep up this recognition, the Maharashtra State Forest Department has initiated population estimation of the Indian Giant Squirrel in the wildlife sanctuary.
Dattatray Padvale (Range Forest Officer, Kalsubai- Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary): “The state animal of Maharashtra is abundantly seen in the sacred grove of Kothale village located in the Rajur range of Kalsubai- Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary.
In the recent past, we conducted a population estimation survey for the Indian Giant Squirrel.
In 2019–2020, we reported about 75 individuals of the Indian Giant Squirrel. While in 2021–2022, nearly 97 individuals were reported.”
Globally, there are four species of large, arboreal squirrels belonging to the genus Ratufa.
Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica is one of the important species and is found only in India.
There are four known subspecies of the Indian Giant Squirrel distributed in different parts of India.
It is predominantly an arboreal species, often sighted in the tall canopy of the large forest tracts.
It rarely comes down to the forest floor. One can find it leaping from one tree to another.
This behaviour of the giant squirrels makes their population estimation difficult in the Kalsubai-Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary.
In the Sanctuary, the Indian Giant Squirrel predominantly occurs in forests at the foothills.
The forest personnel patrol the forest to estimate the population of the Indian Giant Squirrel.
During patrolling, they specifically search for their nests.
Each nest tree of the Indian Giant Squirrel is assigned a unique identification number.

Timecode
0:00 - Bhairoba Devrai
1:37 - Shekaru Counting in Kalsubai-Harishchandragad WS
3:42 - Shekaru Behaviour
5:46 - Shekaru Conservation Reserve - Banda
7:00 - Shekaru Conservation

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