Guwahati: In his first initiative, Assam will conduct a leopard census in unprotected forest areas from Tuesday and the exercise will continue for the next six months.
The North Kamrup Forest Division has taken the initiative and will cover an area of 100 square kilometers, which will include leopard solid areas such as Chas Reserve Forest Changsari, Pharmaceutical Education and Research Institutions (Niper) Campus and All India Institute of Medical Campus Science (AIIMS) in Amingaon Kumbrup district.
Sunnydeo Choudhary Division Forest Officer told TII that the initiative had been taken after considering the increase in leopard meeting in and around the area.
“This is the first census outside the protected area.
Protected area means national parks and wildlife areas.
There is no census that occurs outside the protected area in the state,” he added.
He added that the calculation will be done through the camera trap method.
50 cameras will be installed in the area identified for six months.
“However, we will get numbers about the leopard population within two months.
But we will still install the camera for six months for better monitoring.
Data from each camera will be extracted every seven days.
The census will help us get leopard population data Outside the protected area, “he added.