Baripada: The Odisha government has decided to conduct its own tiger census in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. The census will commence on Wednesday and continue till November 24 and the results will be declared in January 2024.
According to Samrat Gowda, Deputy Director, Shimilipal Tiger Project, the tiger census is carried out by the NTCA at the all-India level once in four years, but the Odisha government is conducting the census now to ascertain the changes that might have taken place in the intervening period. In fact, the STR authorities are expecting an increase in the number of tigers in Similipal from the NTCA tiger census report of 2021.
The STR tiger census team includes trained officers and staff in various ranks. Around 400-500 trap cameras will monitor the movement patterns of the tigers in the Similipal forest. Tiger counting started today with more than 500 Forest Department personnel and experienced officers in Baripada and Rairangpur, including 173 beats in 16 ranges of Similipal Tiger Conservation Project and Karanjia forest region, Gowda said.
In the first phase, the signal survey process will be undertaken from October 18 to 20, while the line transect will be conducted from October 25 to 28. The census team will also count the number of other animals and birds in the STR, including sambar, deer, vultures, and others on October 29. Subsequently, camera traps, footprint samples, etc will be surveyed in three phases from November 1, 2023, to January 18, 2024. In addition, the team will also assess the number of tigers in the region by identifying them through circumstantial evidence.
Bhanumitra Acharya, a former honorary Wildlife Warden, said, “The NTCA welcomes this special tiger census by the state government. Environmentalists have questioned the method of calculation by NTCA of not including tiger cubs in the count and consider it miscounting the entire tiger population. Therefore, the state government should conduct an annual census of tigers along with all other wild animals.
