The Forest Department has released pictures of more animals sighted in the Coimbatore Forest Division, including that of a tiger.
The Forest Department had one camera installed at Sirumugai. After it captured the image of a tiger last month, it was shifted to Mettuppalayam range. The department plans to install more such cameras to record the movement of wildlife.
On May 11, the camera at Mettuppalayam was taken for examination and it had captured the images of one tiger, a leopard, one sloth bear, two porcupines and one Indian Gaur.
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The images were captured by the camera installed at a location very close to the Reserve Forest boundary.
The camera trap images are aimed at assessing the presence of wildlife population so that the Forest Department could re-orient its management, conservation and protection strategies, District Forest Officer V. Thirunavukkarasu told The Hindu on Monday.
The Department at present has one camera and the same is being installed at various places on a turn basis to assess the richness of wildlife population. The Department planned to go in for a few more cameras. The image traps secured from Sirumugai and Mettuppalayam would be studied in detail, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu said.
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The image of the tiger secured at Mettuppalayam is that of a well grown adult animal. The images captured at Sirumugai and Mettuppalayam are found to be that of different animals. Now a study is on to ascertain whether they were resident ones or migratory ones from the neighbouring Sathyamangalam Forests or the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
With these camera trap images, the department has already embarked on the job of fine-tuning its management, conservation and protection strategies.