The bi-annual six-day wildlife monitoring exercise to estimate carnivores, herbivores and vegetations began in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) here on Monday.
Under Phase IV monitoring of tiger reserves by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the pre-monsoon survey is done between June and July and the post-monsoon survey in December-January every year.
Around 300 personnel began the exercise in 46 beats in Sathyamangalam Division and 30 beats in Hasanur Division. It will go on till June 20. Each beat comprising four to six members of forest watchers, guards and anti-poaching watchers (APWs) will be involved in direct sighting of animals from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. besides recording pug marks, dung, carcass of animals, tree bark peelings, vegetations including grass, herbs, sedges species and tree species.
The teams will also carry out line transect survey on alternative days where two km lines are charted parallel to each other and the transect are walked to detect the movement of animals. “Survey is not only to estimate tiger population, but also wild animals, vegetation, herbivores and carnivores in the forest area as each are inter-dependent”, said an official. The collected data are recorded in the Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-STrIPES) app for analysis by the NTCA.
The core or critical tiger habitat in STR is 793.49 sq.km. while the buffer or peripheral area is 614.91 sq.km. and has a significant population of tiger, elephants, leopards, black buck, gaur, four horned antelope, striped hyena, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and other creatures. Also, there are nine tribal settlements and 18 tribal revenue settlements in the STR which are not part of tiger reserve.