With a growth in population, comes increased demand for land, extraction, and use of unsustainable natural resources and inadequate environmental governance. Now, we are losing a significant portion of the biodiversity value in the immediate future.

It is true that here atBalukhandkonark Wild Life Sanctuary wildlife populations and natural community are declining and continuing to be the most effective method to safeguard the coastal biodiversity. We must embrace new conservation strategies to shift our current perspectives.

It is a well-admitted fact that BalukhandkonarkWildlife sanctuary is the backbone of  Puri. We must come together for a negotiation delivering investments for a resilient and sustainable future for Puri.

Of all the threats to wildlife, survival, road-wildlife conflict seems to be the most devastating.

We’re bit ambitious to cover BalukhandkonarkWildLife Sanctuary and this would turn out to be a benchmark for other studies in the future.

Our focus is at these aspects of human- wildlife interactions.

1. To assess how the wild habitats have changed over the past decades.
2. To analyze the root cause of human-wildlife casualties.
3. Assess cases where wildlife has died due to anthropogenic causes
4. To document ecological status of coastal flora and fauna.
5. To restore the degraded patches with related to sand mining and unplanned tourism.
6. Need for monitoring wildlife so as to consider extension and strengthening ESZ.
7. Adding active participation of EDCs towards sanctuary and its ecosystem.
8. Addressing socio, religious and economic aspects of locals to stop habitat loss through sensitization.

At first, we are studying the changes in habitats through forest maps obtained through maps and multiple sources such as topographic maps and landsat satellite images from 1930, 1975, 2000 and 2020 to compare how Balukhand had changed during this period.

Balukhand’s natural forest harbors hundreds of species of plants, mammals, reptiles, avians, etc.

So many wildlife habitat patches identified in the past have now been rejoined as forest plantations. Monoculture forest plantations will definitely affect biodiversity and would be unlikely to support the majority of forest dependent species across all animal and plants.

Exotic species plantations are being established almost entirely in what are known as sanctuaries.

Our primary focus is on investigating the biodiversity of Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary; the long-term goal was to use these results to attract other scientists and ecotourists to look up on Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary as a destination who should address to some extent the socio – economic development of locals.

We have decided to dedicate to involve for several years in exploring and nurturing a multi-faceted project with tight linkage between local community development and conservation, while at the same time devoting time to documenting one of the most remarkable faunal assemblages of Odisha.