Ranchi: Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) management has started preparations for the national tiger census, the field work that will begin at the end of this month and the report will be published in 2022.
As part of preparation for the census together by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA ) And the Wildlife Institute of India (Wii), Director of PTR Kumar Ashutosh and two officials, including field biologists, visited Ragaji National Park in Uttarakhand to attend training camps to be determined by camera traps and other techniques from conducting field surveys.
Reserve management says more than 1,000 camera traps will be assigned across the core area and garden buffer in two phases to take pictures and identify tigers if there is.
Each tiger will be identified through distinctive lines, Pugmarks, and scat samples.
Speaking with Toi, Deputy Director of Ptr Mukesh Kumar said that all reserve areas would be divided into two square kiluts in the area.
“Each grid will have a pair of camera traps.
Our beat guards will lurk the area and arrange a camera trap.” The first phase commissioning the camera trap will begin at the end of September, Kumar said.
The only tiger backup is only spread in an area of 1,100 square kilometers.
Of the total area, around 420 square kilometers are designated as the essence and 700 square kilometers remaining as the buffer area.
Tiger India 2018 estimation reports do not document the existence of a single tiger on PTR.
In 2014, this study showed that PTR had three tigers.
“We have documented the existence of tigers in PTR recently.
However, tigers are shy animals, they are not captured in camera traps easily,” a senior official of the forest department, environment and wildlife here.
“Moreover, the park has some problems.
On the one hand, there are several villages in the core area and on the other hand, Maois also looks for protection there.
With the presence of Maois, there is security personnel, too.
This human interference expels the tiger,” the official added.
PTR officials are also skeptical about getting accurate estimates in the coming training.
“Maois broke our camera trap, afraid they would provide their location, identity, and strength.
Last year, we cannot arrange a camera trap in most core areas.
On one occasion, our people experienced meetings with Maoists when they traveled to The core area to arrange a camera trap.
Our people were beaten and pursued.
There are doubts about whether we will be able to get accurate numbers this time, “said a PTR official with anonymity requirements.
PTR MGMT to set a 1K camera trap for the upcoming tiger census
