On hold due to Covid, wildlife census in Haryana to resume in March

The 2021 wildlife census in Haryana had kicked off in April 2021 and was expected to be concluded by July 2021 in two phases. However, the state-wide wildlife estimation process was postponed after the second wave of the pandemic hit, posing risk to forest officials and animals since several state forest and wildlife department staff had tested Covid positive at the time.

M L Rajvanshi, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, said the census will resume in March 2022. “Groundwork has already started. The census had been postponed due to Covid, but now that the cases have reduced, we are resuming it. Once the inclement weather clears up, work will begin. The training sessions for field staff were earlier completed. The Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun will carry out the survey and provide technical input and they will be duly assisted by our field staff,” he said.

Officials said the census assesses the distribution of mammalian carnivore, herbivore and prey population in protected areas; abundance and distribution of species like nilgai, blackbuck, macaque outside protected areas, and status of avian species. The census helps the wildlife department formulate strategies to manage the man-animal conflict.

Stating that the number and location of camera traps to be set up in forest areas will be decided by an expert panel in the coming days, Rajvanshi added, “Bird count will be excluded from the purview of the present census.”

The wildlife department officials said camera traps will be set up in the forest areas of Gurgaon, Morni Hills and Kalesar, covering 38 beats in Aravalli forests [Gurgaon, Rewari, Jhajjar etc] and 59 beats in the Shivalik [Panchkula, Ambala etc]. An official of the wildlife department said in protected areas, camera trap technique will be used while in areas outside protected areas of forests, line transect method will be employed.

As part of the Wildlife census for Haryana, a monkey census was conducted between April 28 and April 30 last year, which had documented 6,000 monkeys.