Animal census under way in ATR

The pre-monsoon all-animal census is under way within the limits of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).

The week-long exercise, which began on May 19, will assess the carnivore and herbivore population along with the quality of their habitats in ATR.

Arockiaraj Xavier, Deputy Field Director of ATR and District Forest Officer of Pollachi Forest Division, told

The Hindu that 128 staff of the Forest Department and biologists were involved in the census.

As a precaution against COVID-19, volunteers and nature enthusiasts were not included in the team.

“The staff will cover 32 beats within four forest ranges of ATR namely Ulandi, Pollachi, Valparai and Manombolly that fall under the Pollachi Forest Division. There are 64 transect lines in the four ranges and each transect line will have two persons each for the survey,” he said.

According to him, the team was using ‘M-STrIPES’ app (Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status), a tiger monitoring application developed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, for the census.

Data entered in the M-STrIPES app will also record the GPS coordinates of locations while entering the survey results.

Pollachi Forest Range Officer A. Kasilingam said the team members were given one-day training before the start of the census.