Survey of tiger population begins

A monitoring of the tiger population began in Wayanad Wildlife
Sanctuary in the district on Monday to implement effective protection
measures."This five-month survey is aimed at getting a clear-cut
picture on the tiger population in the sanctuary and will help us
identify the exact habitat of the animal to implement special
protection measures there," V.K. Sreevalsan, Wildlife Warden, Wayanad
Wildlife Sanctuary, told The Hindu on Wednesday.Eight night vision
digital camera traps would be set at four points in the forest next
week as part of the survey. We have adopted two methods to analyse the
tiger population, he added.In the first method, forest personnel will
directly collect sighting details of the animal. They will collect the
sighting details from tourist guides and even from tourists who visit
the sanctuary."The department has directed visitors and guides to
submit the details of sightings," Mr. Sreevalsan said. "As per the
collected data, we would analyse the longitude and latitude of the
place of sighting by the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) of
the department to locate the area appropriately."In the second method,
the personnel would indirectly collect data, he said."In this method,
we rely on pugmarks, roars, remnants of kills and scratches of the
tiger on the barks of trees in its home region. A tiger has its own
territory and the home range of a tiger may vary from 8 to 10 square
km. The details will be collected on a daily basis and the
consolidated data submitted to the wildlife warden each month. In this
method, we will utilise the GPS for accuracy," Mr. Sreevalsan added.He
said in the first phase, a camera trap would be set at the Muthanga
range under the sanctuary. It would be continued at the Kurichiad,
Tholpetty and Sulthan Bathery forest rages. At the end of the survey,
the forest personnel would prepare a habitat map of the tigers."Based
on this, we can concentrate our attention on the area where the tiger
population is high and can implement better protection measures for
the animal, which faces threat from poachers."According to a vague
data of the Forest Department, the number of tigers is estimated
between 15 and 25 in the sanctuary.

The Hindu, 9th January 2009