They said 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, which is used to fill the 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 is on 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 have 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. There is water in the waterholes throughout the year. In summer, 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 have kept the solar panels manually operational rather than keeping it on auto mode. It is located at a distance of 1 km from our office. We switch it on as per the requirement," Bhalerao said.

Meanwhile, the forest officials ruled out the possibility of poaching in the belt. "We have forest guards who keep a vigil and the villagers are also cooperative. This area is a delight," they said.

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

Panditrao Jadhav, range forest officer of Yeola, said, "If the animals have enough area to graze, they don't go to the farms. We have done plantation in 30 hectares of land. We also have natural jungles here."

However, the forest department is facing staff crunch. There is one forester, three forest guards and six forest labourers for the entire stretch. The forest employees said with few of them nearing retirement, recruitments need to be done soon.

"We are managing with the staff at present. Appointing new staff is up to the government. They have the right to do so. We have told our seniors and they are following up the matter with the government," Jadhav added.