RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: Officials of the Rajamahendravaram Wildlife Division have completed the tiger census at the Papikonda National Park. They have identified 232 species of birds and 14 species of amphibians using camera traps.
The forest was notified as a national park in 2008 with an area of 1012.86 sq.km, spread over East and West Godavari. Divisional Forest Officer C Selvam told TNIE that they have completed the wildlife census within 90 days. “Tigers and leopards were spotted and their images have been captured by the cameras set up at the national park,’’ he said.
The first phase of tiger census, taken up in East Godavari district using 142 trap cameras in 71 locations, was completed in 45 days. In the second phase, 90 cameras were set up at 45 locations in West Godavari’s Papikondalu.
The DFO said tigers, leopard, porcupine, Indian gaur, sloth bear, spotted deer, mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, leopard cat, common palm civet, small Indian civet, rusty-spotted cat were caught in the cameras. The census report would be released on World Tiger Day on July 29. The enumeration report has been sent to the National Tiger Census Authority.
The previous survey in 2018 did not disclose the number of tigers in the region. Forest officials in 2016 claimed that the Park had three tigers. Stating that the tiger census would be conducted every four years, Selvam said the forest staff identified the wild animals in the forests with the help of an ecological mobile application.
Elaborating, the DFO explained that earlier pug marks of tigers were compared to molds made of plaster of paris. Now, the enumeration is carried out using high sensitivity cameras and ecological mobile applications. The camera traps images that further help in identifying individual big cats through their stripe patterns and other unique physical features.