The Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) has started preparations for conducting the tiger census which will begin in December. Sanjayankumar, PTR Deputy Director, said that the census will be taken for three months and the officials of the forest department were being given training to conduct the census. He said that camera trapping will be utilised for the purpose and proposals have been submitted for this. At present, the PTR has no camera trapping facility and it has to be made available, he said.
The census will be conducted as per the criteria set by the National Tiger Protection Authority.
The entire PTR area will be divided into different blocks to conduct the survey and further training will be given to the selected enumerators, Mr.Sanjayankumar said adding that camera trapping facility will help in conducting the survey more accurately and in selected spots it will be set up. The picture taken by the camera could also be used for conservative purposes.
The PTR has already collected pictures of 28 tigers using the camera trapping facility. The tigers are identified using the colour line on its body as each one will be unique and is not similar to the colour line on the body of another one. Though in earlier occasions, the animal census was taken in the PTR with the help of volunteers and non-governmental organisations, this time the officials themselves will conduct the survey.
