The Hindu : Front Page : GPS to track deer at Guindy National Park

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Saturday, Feb 17, 2007
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GPS to track deer at Guindy National Park

Vani Doraisamy

— Photo: N. Balaji

MAPPING THE SPECIES: A blackbuck at the Guindy National Park in Chennai.

CHENNAI: When the annual deer census begins at the Guindy National Park in the first week of May, high-tech means will be used to track the deer population.

The Wildlife department will make extensive use of navigational and mapping tools such as the Global Positioning System, to arrive at a near-accurate estimate of the spotted deer and the endangered blackbuck.

"Permanent transit lines have been put in position using GPS to be used as coordinates in mapping the 270-hectare national park bang in the heart of the city. This, along with the use of the revised methodology recommended by the Wildlife Institute of India [WLI], Dehra Dun, is an improvement over earlier surveys which relied on less advanced methodology," Ashish Kumar Srivastava, Wildlife Warden, Chennai, told The Hindu .

The census, which will be done by a 100-strong team, will also cover the adjoining IIT Madras campus.

The tracking will be done over two to three days.

The data of last year's census has been sent to the WLI to create a nation-wide database and the results are still awaited, Mr. Srivastava said, adding that the only likely variable will be the availability of feed, as the park was a self-sustaining system, with no recorded cases of poaching.

According to a rapid assessment of biodiversity on the IIT campus done by a Non Governmental Organisation, Care Earth, the blackbuck population was only about 12 — four males and eight females. The loss of critical habitat was the reason behind the low numbers.

"Unless the available habitat is improved qualitatively and quantitatively, blackbuck cannot survive on the [IIT] campus," the report said.

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