COIMBATORE: With the increasing human-animal conflict deaths in estate areas, officials of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) have started enumerating tigers and other carnivores, including the leopard population, outside the forest areas of Valparai and Manombolly.
The exercise covering tea and coffee estates, and other regions beyond the forest areas in Valparai and Manombolly, is being held after a gap of three years. The last census outside forest areas was held in 2021, with two tigers and four leopards being identified.
As many as 300 cameras have been fixed in 150 grids, and each grid has been fixed for a two-sq-km distance, covering a total of 230 sq km. This exercise is part of Phase 4 monitoring, which would continue for one-and-a-half months.
“The grids sharing a boundary with the reserve forest and the estate have less than two square km of area. The population estimation of tigers and leopards will help us to understand the carnivore movement better and work out strategies to mitigate human-animal conflict,” said a senior ATR official.
While the tiger population would be identified using its stripe pattern, which is unique for each animal, the leopard population would be enumerated using their face, tail and dots on their body.
“The images of tigers and leopards and even humans passing the area are automatically captured by the camera traps. We are planning to download the footage once a week, after which the images captured on all 300 cameras will be compiled, downloaded and analysed. The exact number of tigers and leopard will be known after two months, once the exercise is completed,” said the official.