Bantala: A wildlife census on tigers, herbivorous animals and vultures will be conducted at Satkosia sanctuary under Angul circle from May 17, forest officials said. A total of 113 units have been formed to undertake census for all the 113 beats.
The census will take place in the sanctuary spread over of Satkosia, Mahanadi, Angul, Athamallik, Athagarh, and Dhenkanal forest divisions.
The census of carnivorous animals will take place for three days—May 17, 18 and 19— while the next three days of May 20, 21 and 22 will be devoted for enumeration of herbivorous animals.
This survey starting from May 17 will take place for seven days and would conclude May 23. The survey is conducted twice a year for which all the divisional forest officers, ACFs, rangers, foresters and guards have been given training, regional chief conservator of forests Pradip Raj Karate said.
The vulture census will be conducted May 23. A transact line will be drawn for each units in which the herbivorous animals will be enumerated.
The participating forest officials will visit the transact line daily in the morning and collect the faeces, record scratch marks, howling of the animals and the meat which would have been leftover in the place by carnivorous animals and make an analysis of them.
Similarly, 1,595 pressure impression pads (PIP) will be built in the jungle to collect the pugmarks of tigers. The PIPs will be built on a length of 20-feet in the jungle roads to collect the pugmarks of the tigers.
This apart, the participating officials will also take the assistance of the camera traps installed inside the Satkosia and Mahanadi wildlife divisions.
Each unit will be manned by three personnel as 375 forest officials underwent one-day training at the Rangers College in Angul Monday. The participating forest officials will be in touch among themselves with 113 mobile phones and internet service.
PNN
