Week-long wildlife census commences at ATR

Apart from bigger animals, the census would also focus on smaller species like snakes, birds and other habitat. Both herbivorous and carnivorous animals will be counted as part of the study. 

“The census will be carried out as per the guidelines issued by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). For the first three days, the staff will record direct sightings of wild animals and indirect sightings that include scat and pugmarks. Each team comprising around three persons will trek into the forest for about five kilometers every day. Then, on the remaining three days, the teams will record the vegetative status of the forest cover,” said an official of ATR. 

The staff involved in the census work has been trained to use M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers- Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app. With the GPS enabled M-STrIPES app, the senior forest officials can keep a tab on the ground level staff and the area they have covered during census work. 

Also, the field staff could feed important observations and inputs in the app during patrolling which would provide data about animal mortality, any illegal activity such as poaching, animal population status and trends, habitat status, patrol efforts and human interference in the area.