In order to provide food for wildlife inhabiting Khar Touran National Park in Semnan Province, 40 tons of fodder, worth 550 million rials ($4,000), have been scattered in the area.
According to Abbasali Damangir, head of the provincial office of the Department of Environment, the measure was taken so as to compensate for the lack of food in drought-stricken areas of the park in which vegetation for animals has become rare.
"Such plans are efficient moves which help prevent a decline in their population," Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.
Food supply has become a routine task recently considering poor vegetation in the park, the official added.
Furthermore, in order to prevent the species from abandoning the park under the pressure of water scarcity, special plans are being implemented to supply the demand for water.
"A water tank with the capacity of 12,000 liters has been placed in the area," the official said, adding that over the past year, three million liters of water have been siphoned to the water resources of the park.
Furthermore, since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), one million liters of water have been supplied for the nature reserve.
Covering an area of 1.4 million hectares, the national park has the largest population of Persian onager, goitered and Indian gazelle, wild sheep and goats. The park is also home to a number of critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs.
