Baripada: With Union Environment Ministry’s report showing a worrying decline in the state’s wild cats population, Odisha government on Tuesday began its own tiger census in 173 beats of 16 ranges in Similipal Tiger Reserve and Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia forest division areas in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
It will continue till the end of this month. “The counting will be held from 9 am to 4 pm everyday till October 31. Camera trapping will be done between November and January. Pugmarks and stool samples will be collected for DNA sampling. Eventually, all data will be submitted to the government in the form of a report,” Director of Similipal Tiger Reserve Prakash Chand Gogineni said.
The Forest department plans to use around 1,000 cameras, while 75 days have been set aside for camera trap exercise instead of the usual 40 days, sources said.
Three scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had recently conducted training for master trainers and imparted handholding training to around 20 officials at Chandka Godibari camp for the census.
According to All-India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2022 released in July, the total number of tigers in Odisha’s forests has come down to 20 in 2022 from 45 in 2006 with one of its two notified tiger reserves, the Satkosia Tiger Reserve, left with none. Between 2018 and 2022, the state registered a drop in the population of the big cat from 28 to 20 with STR as the only silver lining, which saw the number double from eight to 16 during the period.
While experts attributed the sharp decline in the number of big cats to rampant poaching, some officials raised questions on the methodology of counting the tigers, which they argued might not be an accurate reflection of the presence, habitat occupancy and number of tigers in Odisha, as the sampling intensity was relatively low. Many tigers, who are adults now, were cubs and, thus, not counted during the census exercise around 2021, they added.