Pre-monsoon tiger census from May 20

The pre-monsoon or the summer session of the ongoing tiger census for 2018 will begin on May 20, covering tiger reserves and adjacent forest divisions.

Apart from recording the number of tigers through direct sighting and other methods, the census will also analyse the prey base of the big cat like spotted deer, sambar, gaur, barking deer and wild boar.

The census data will also be used to study the habitat share of co-predators like leopards and hyenas.

Orientation programme

Officials attached to the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) said that the orientation programme for the participants of the census would be held on May 20, with the field census planned to start on May 21 and end on 28.

V. Ganesan, Field Director, ATR, said, “It is a continuation of the winter session of the tiger census. We have been collecting data on tigers using other methods like camera traps. We have 150 pairs of camera traps, used on rotation in the forests to cover 958 sq. km. of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.”

The cameras are placed in the forest after dividing the area into a grid of 2X2 sq. km.

The cameras will record the movement of the tigers in each grid.

Mr. Ganesan added that the census would also cover adjacent forest divisions like Kodaikanal, Theni and Dindigul. Unlike the previous tiger censuses, the ongoing census is scheduled to cover more forest divisions apart from tiger reserves in the State namely the ATR, the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve and the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

Coimbatore Circle CCF Deepak Srivastava, who is also the Field Director, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, said that the pre-monsoon census in MTR would commence by May-end.

He said that core and buffer areas of MTR would be covered in the census.