Week-long wildlife census begins

More than 200 personnel deployed

January 22, 2018 11:31 pm | Updated 11:31 pm IST - KHAMMAM

DFO Sunil Hiremath at enumeration of wild animals at Velugu Reseve Forest Block in Khammam on Monday.

DFO Sunil Hiremath at enumeration of wild animals at Velugu Reseve Forest Block in Khammam on Monday.

Pug marks of a leopard were noticed in the Nacharam beat of the Thallada forest range, footprints of a hyena were found in Gopalpet beat of the same forest range, and a gaur was sighted at Yatalakunta beat in the Sattupalli range, as the Forest department staff scoured through the forests as part of enumeration of wild animals in the district on Monday.

More than 210 Forest personnel split into several teams, spanning the total forest area of 62,000 hectares in the district, on the inaugural day of the week-long wildlife census.

The teams ventured into the forests carrying kit bags containing requisite equipment, including compass, to enumerate wildlife population in adherence to line transect survey method. While some of the team members carried Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, several others used their GPS equipped smartphones for latitude-longitude coordinates, sources said.The teams found the traces of several wild animals including a leopard, a hyena, a gaur and a sloth bear in different forest beats on the first day of the wildlife census on Monday, said Sunil Hiremath, District Forest Officer, Khammam.

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