BENGALURU: In Karnataka, the six-day tiger census in five tiger reserves and wildlife divisions have been completed with the state Forest Department recording a healthy and good presence of big cats in the protected areas. This is the first time that the national tiger census has gone digital with the usage of a mobile app unlike the earlier census.
The switch over to technology was smooth and without hassle, said Manoj Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Nodal Officer, Karnataka, All India Tiger Estimation-2018. He added, “The forest staff was trained well in advance in adapting to the technology. Almost 90 per cent of the work was done on mobile phones which made data collection easy.”
Developed by Wildlife Institute of India, the mobile app (ECOLOGICAL) enabled both gathering and recording of data easier. With all the data records (be it of prey or habitat) digitised, chances of errors are less.
Any data recorded in the app will be directly transferred to the main server if there is internet connection, otherwise it gets stored. Further, the app provides instant analysis pertaining to issues of poaching or patrolling.
In the last two to three years, 1,200-1,400 forest guards, watchers and other staff members took part in the tiger census. The CCF said, “The participation of new recruits has made a big difference to the census work. They have not only made a difference in protection work in tiger reserves but also easily adapted to new technology. In fact, their acceptability and ability to learn made it possible to make a smooth transition to digitisation.”
Sudhanvi Suresh, a certified volunteer who underwent a five-day training at Nagarhole, took part in the tiger census for six days at Nagarhole Range. She said, “It was a beautiful experience where we stayed in the midst of forests and looked for signs and marks of carnivores for three days. Although I did not sight a tiger, we got healthy evidence of it through fresh scats, marks and alarm calls. The last three days, we did ungulate estimation, counting the animals on line transect. In fact, the sustainability of carnivores depends on them with 10-12 spotted deer per sqkm considered a good habitat.”
She added, “The staff had created transects in every beat 2-3 km area and walking in line transect, we recorded vegetation and ungulates in surrounding areas followed by pellet counting for recording species density. Data was recorded manually in prescribed forms as well as in mobile app along with pictures and GPS locations.”
This census, direct sightings of tigers were recorded in Bandipur, Nagarhole, BRT, Bhadra and Kali tiger reserves.However, in Bhadra and Kali, due to dense forest cover, there were less sightings but good signs of tiger presence. The CCF added, “The good signs of tiger presence indicates good health of the forest. Presently, the data collection from all the tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks is being tabulated.”