Bantala: Forest officials Monday began a six-day long biennial census of carnivores and herbivores inside the Satkosia Tiger Reserve amid hopes that there would be a jump in the population of big cats. The census will end January 19.
Many cameras have been installed at strategic points from where capturing footage of the big cats would be easy. After training, a special team of researchers, forest officials and volunteers began the census. The census will count tiger numbers both inside and outside the reserves.
The team will count carnivores inside the sanctuary for the first three days and later will count the herbivores. Both direct and indirect methods are being used to ascertain the status of the big cats in the sanctuary. “We expect tiger numbers to increase,” an official said.
After the census, the data will be shared with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Satkosia Tiger Reserve Project comprises the Mahanadi Forest Wildlife Division and the Satkosia Wildlife Division. Under the Mahanadi Division there are four ranges — Kusang, Chamundia, Banigocha East and Banigocha West, comprising 36 forest beats.
Similarly, the five ranges of Pamphasar, Purunakot, Tikarpada, Raiguda and Jilinda come under the Satkosia Forest Division with 45 beats. Range officials, Foresters, Forest Guards and Protection Assistants (PA) will lead the census operations.
The counting of tigers would primarily be done through the camera trap and pugmark method. An app named Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-STriPES) has been introduced to make the census error-free.
The App developed by the Wildlife Institute of India, is expected to eliminate errors, which can sometimes occur in camera trapping.
“Officials have been trained for the census. Steps are being taken to avoid all kinds of disturbance to the big cats. We expect the number of the big cats to increase this year,” Satkosia Field Director Sudarshan Panda said.
Mahavir or MB2, a three-year-old tiger, which was relocated from the Bandhavgarh Reserve Forest to increase tiger numbers in Odisha, was found dead at the Satkosia Tiger Reserve November 15, 2018. The animal died after it was caught in a trap set up by poachers.
The future of Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari, also brought from Madhya Pradesh, is hanging in the balance as it is languishing inside the Raigad enclosure for months.
PNN