Tiger census will commence at Bandipur on Saturday and at Nagarahole on Sunday as part of the All-India Tiger and Mega Herbivore Estimation.
years and is the fifth such exercise being taken up — the earlier ones being held in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018.
The authorities at Bandipur have divided the 912.04 sq km national park into three blocks to carry out the enumeration. While the enumeration exercise will be held in block 1 from January 22 to 27, it will be held in block 2 from January 28 to February 2 and the tiger count exercise in block 3 will be taken up from February 3 to 8.
HOW TO DETECT
This year’s enumeration exercise entails the use of MSTRIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app and apart from the tiger counts, the exercise will also throw up data on mega herbivores, including elephants and gaurs. The use of apps ensures that the data is not only digitised but is uploaded on a real-time basis and is robust.
NTCA WITH EXPERT IN DETECTION
The training was imparted by experts from Wildlife Institute of India and the enumeration is being held as per the protocols stipulated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority .
The authorities have deployed only the department officials and frontline field staff apart from members of the Special Tiger Force squad for the exercise. While nearly 300 people will be on duty at Bandipur, around 350 will take part in the exercise at Nagarahole.
The enumeration in Nagarahole will be held from January 23 to February 1. Sign survey will be held in all the 91 beats and line transects will be conducted in two phases, according to Nagarahole Tiger Reserve Director Mahesh Kumar. He said they would do the sign survey, including tiger scat, pug marks etc., for carnivores. The enumeration would also throw up data of the tiger numbers in non-protected areas.
In view of the census, the safari has been affected, including cancellation of a few trips at Nagarahole.
In the 2018 census, there were 125 tigers in Nagarahole whereas there were 72 tigers in the 2014 exercise which was a big jump. But experts believe the tiger numbers at both Bandipur and Nagarahole may have reached their optimum levels and could have stabilised or shown a marginal increase this year.
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