Tiger census to begin in October in Odisha, training kicks off from today
Odisha government will hold tiger census to ascertain the exact number of tigers in the State in the month of October this year
Bhubaneswar: Odisha government will hold tiger census to ascertain the exact number of tigers in the State in the month of October this year.
The tiger census exercise will continue for around one and half months.
The training programme for tiger count in the state will begin from today. The state forest department has initiated the process of tiger count. It is planned to give training to people who are involved in the programme in various stages.
In the first phase, 20 master trainer will be trained at Chandaka Godibari and one ACFO from each of the eight circles will be given training. For this purpose, two experts from the Tiger department of wildlife Institute of India, Bengaluru have reached Odisha.
The forest department will adopt two methods for the tiger census; one is the line-transact and the other one is the camera trap. In the second week of October the massive exercise will start and by January end, the results will come out.
According to the report released by the central government on Saturday, the number of big cats in Similipal has increased from 8 to 16. As per the report of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), there were 45 tigers in the state in 2006, while in 2010 the number had dropped to 32.
In 2018, the number came down to 28. However, Similipal tiger conservation project witnessed a rise in number of big cats. The number increased from 8 to 16. Overall, big cat population has decreased in various forests of Odisha.
While there were 28 tigers in the state in 2018, the figure dipped to 20, according to the tiger census of 2021-22.
Ms Kalinga