Tiger census commences in Periyar Reserve

The reserve has been divided into 253 grids, with each grid covering an expanse of four square-km and having one pair of camera, said Deputy Director PTR Krishan Kumar. 

“This is the first time, this exercise is being done on such a large scale in the Tiger Reserve,” he told PTI. The data collected will be used for tabulating the tiger census programme in the country, which is done once in four years, he said.

Camera trapping is done twice a year, one in November-January and another during MarchApril. But this is the first time the entire reserve has been covered, Kumar said. The photographs using camera traps will be segregated after a one month period. “We will extract the images, segregate them and tiger analysis will be done,” he said. 

This is to monitor the tigers, preys, leopards, sambars, porcupines and such other animals,” he said. The strength of the tigers in PTR is believed to be around 35-40.

The photographs of tigers which have been captured in the cameras will be monitored. Each tiger has different pattern of stripes, like finger prints of humans, and identification is done on the basis of their stripes, he said.

The report will be handed over to the National Tiger Conservation Authority.