The population has risen due to plantation and sufficient water in the waterholes, the officials said. They have also installed the first solar panel in the district in the forest, which is used to fill waterholes from a 180-feet deep bore well.

The forest belt is spread across five villages - Rajapur, Mamdapur, Deodari, Kharwandi and Somthane. The entire forest stretch covers 4,500 hectares of land. Two months ago, Mamdapur was declared as a reserved forest area.

"Electricity does not reach the remote areas of the jungle. That is why we installed the solar panel six months ago, the first in the district. We fill the waterholes from the bore well using solar power. It has a capacity of one horsepower. This way, we ensure that there is water in the waterholes throughout the year. In summers, we fill the waterholes with tankers. We have noticed 20% rise in the number of deer and blackbucks in the past two years," said forester Arjun Bhalerao.

There are two waterholes in Rajapur, three in Somthane, four in Mamdapur, two in Deodari and two in Kharwandi. They have water till March after which they are filled with the help of tankers.

"We operate the solar panel manually rather than keeping it on auto mode. It is located a km away from our office. We switch it on as per the requirement," Bhalerao added.

Meanwhile, the forest officials ruled out the possibility of poaching in the belt. "We have forest guards keeping vigil and even the villagers are cooperative," he said.

Some years ago, blackbucks were known to destroy standing crops of farmers in these villages. They used to graze into the farms and destroy the crops. But in the recent past, the forest department has received no such complaints from the villagers.

Range forest officer of Yeola Panditrao Jadhav said, "If the animals have enough area to graze, they will not veer towards the farms. We have done plantations in 30 hectares of land for the animals. Besides, we also have natural jungles here.

But the forest department is facing staff crunch. There are, in all, 10 officers - one forester, three forest guards and six forest labourers - for the entire stretch. With some of them nearing retirement, recruitments need to be done soon, the staff said.

"At present, we are somehow managing with the staff that we have. Appointing new staff is up to the government. We have asked our seniors for additional staff and they are following up the matter with the government," Jadhav added.