Baripada: The Odisha forest department Wednesday launched the tiger census at Similipal National Park amidst suspicion over the number of big cats in the state.
The state government decided to go for the tiger census after the All-India Tiger Estimation (AITE) 2022 released in July this year said that the total number of tigers in Odisha’s forests has gone down to 20 during the year from 45 in 2006.
The deputy director of Similipal Tiger Resrve (STR), Samrat Gowda said “The government has started the headcount at Similipal and other forest divisions of Baripada forest circle in Mayurbhanj district as part of the all Odisha tiger census.”
The forest department said Satkosia Tiger Reserve is left with no big cat. 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.
The census is being carried out in 173 beats of 16 ranges in the Similipal Tiger Reserve Project and Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia Forest Division areas. It will be held from 9 am to 4 pm everyday till October 31, director of the tiger reserve Prakash Chand Gogineni said.
Camera trapping will be done between November and January and pugmarks and stool samples of tigers will be collected for DNA sampling, he said.
“All data will be submitted to the government in the form of a report,” Gogineni said.
The ongoing census is expected to bring clarity over the number of tigers in Similipal.
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, forest department officials said.
Three scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India had recently conducted training for master trainers and held handholding training for around 20 officials at Chandka Godibari camp in Bhubaneswar for the census.
Though a section of wildlife experts feel that the sharp decline in the number of big cats is due to rampant poaching in Odisha forests, some others have raised questions on the methodology of counting the tigers.
PTI