ONGOLE: As per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Nagarjuna Sagar- Srisailam Reserve Forest’s Markapur division officials started the “Tiger Population Census’ programme after four years. The last census was conducted in 2018.
The reserve forest area of the Nallamala forests is distributed in five districts situated in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states i.e., erstwhile Kurnool, Prakasam and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar districts of Telangana.For administrative convenience, the Prakasam district reserve forest has been divided into Markapur, Giddalur and Srisailam divisions.
In the last census, the forest department found around 60 tigers in the Nallamala Tiger reserve forest area, of which around 48 are in Prakasam district-Markapur forest division limits. The current census which started on April 5 will be taken up till for 40 days till May 15.
The forest officials and regular wild life tackers identified around 234 locations in the Markapur division in which tigers have been roaming freely. Among the 4 forest ranges, the authorities identified 124 places in Ganjivari Palle range, 56 in Dornala, 28 in Yerragonda Palem and 26 in Vijayapuri South range to take up the survey.