BENGALURU: The coveted tiger census starts from January 22 with Bandipur tiger reserve, one of the prime reserves in India, being the first to hold the exercise. While Bandipur's exercise begins January 22, a day ahead of schedule, the census in the other tiger reserves -- Nagarahole, Bhadra, BRT and Kali -- will start from January 23 and be completed by February 7.
"All eyes are on tiger assessment as a healthy population has been reported from Kali Tiger Reserve, and tigers have also been reported in Koppa division. The areas outside of tiger reserves are also reporting a rise in tiger numbers. Last time, Madhya Pradesh topped because they gave more concentration to areas outside forest covers. The same is being done by Karnataka also, but this time more aggressively," Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sanjai Mohan told The New Indian Express.
Annual internal assessment in each tiger reserve has also shown a rise. The assessment of each census data has shown a 25 per cent - 30 per cent jump which is expected this time.
They also admitted that in the last exercise, data of some beats was excluded. This time, each beat in 51 forest divisions has been listed. In the 2018 census, Karnataka reported 524 tigers, just two short of 526 tigers in Madhya Pradesh. In 2014, Karnataka recorded 406 and 300 in 2010.
Karnataka has five tiger reserves and 23 wildlife sanctuaries. Unlike previous census held in all reserves and wildlife sanctuaries at once, this time, it has been divided and left to each division to decide. The decision comes amid the pandemic, when forest department officials are not taking volunteers to most reserves and wildlife sanctuaries for the exercise.
"Camera trap assessment, which is the prime exercise of the census, had already started from March-April in tiger reserves, and from October in the other divisions. M-stripe is being used for the assessment during line transect and direct sighting survey. Each reserve and sanctuary is divided into blocks and beats. Each beat covers a grid of 2 sq km ,which takes one and half hours to two hours to cover. So, time and schedules have been divided to ensure all areas are accurately covered," said additional PCCF, wildlife, Kumar Pushkar.