The pre-monsoon animal estimation started in the Pollachi Forest Division of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) on Monday.
ATR Field Director S. Ramasubramanian said the eight-day exercise or ‘Phase IV’ monitoring is done as per the protocols of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). “The exercise will estimate the population of carnivores and herbivores besides assessing the quality of habitats and human disturbances,” he said.
An orientation session on the census protocol was held for the participating staff on the first day. As per the schedule, block counting (direct counting) will be held for three days from Tuesday. Transect line survey (indirect counting) will be held from May 26 to 28. The staff who take part in the exercise will submit their census data on May 29.
Bhargava Teja, Deputy Director of Pollachi Division of ATR, said around 200 staff will conduct the survey in the division which comprises four forest ranges- Pollachi, Valparai, Ulandy and Manambolly. A total of 62 transect lines will cover 32 forest beats in the four forest ranges.
In the Pollachi division, the orientation for the staff was held at the Advanced Wildlife Management Training Centre at Attakatty under the leadership of Assistant Conservator of Forests V. Selvam.
In Tiruppur Forest Division of ATR, the animal estimation will be carried out in Udumalpet, Amaravathy, Kozhumam and Vandaravu forest ranges. A total of 53 transect lines have been identified for the census in 34 forest beats. N. Jayaraj, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore (in-charge of Tiruppur Division), will supervise the exercise.
K. Ganeshram, Assistant Conservator of Forests and Additional Director of Tiruppur Division, and biologist K. Mahesh Kumar conducted the orientation session for the staff on Monday.
‘M-STrIPES’ (Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) application will be used for recording the census data. The census data will be submitted to the NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India.
