Erode: Forest officials in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) initiated six-day tiger census on Monday. They will use M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app to carry out the census.
The mobile app, which was used in the census between December 2017 and January 2018 too, can save the collected data to the main server in Chennai once officials capture pictures.
The app does not need internet connectivity and can be used offline. “The exact information about wild animals will be stored in the government records using the app,” said a forest officer.
A total of 320 people were split into 46 groups to take the census. They will go around at least 8km in the deep forest to count wildlife. Besides tiger, other animals focused in the census are leopard, haina, bear and deer.
It is to be noted that the forest officials were given hands-on training to use this app last year. Forest officials usually take census for wild animals during winter and rainy season.
