Bhubaneswar: Will the tiger census next year encompass additional forests, resulting in a more accurate count of the big cat population in Odisha?

This could be one of the reasons why the state decides to increase the 2022 census to 20 forest divisions instead of the 15 that were covered last time. In addition, the state will purchase additional camera traps for the census. Odisha currently has roughly 800 cameras for this purpose.

In fact, since the 2014 census, the state's tiger population has remained unchanged. Odisha's tiger population was estimated to be around 28. In 2018, the figure remained the same.

Officials, on the other hand, are optimistic that the number will rise this time.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Odisha Forest, Environment and Climate Change (FE&CC) Department recently held a preparatory meeting for the 2022 census, according to officials.

Shashi Paul, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) of Wildlife, said that training of Odisha forest staff for the tiger census will begin shortly and be finished by September.

Modalities of the Census

The census will include a sign survey, a pug mark count, and camera trapping, according to the PCCF.

It will also make use of the Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status mobile application (which was deployed for the first time in 2018) to ensure that the census is error-free.

Counting in Three Phases

Phase-I data collecting will commence in forest divisions in October, after the conclusion of field personnel training in September.

In the second phase, the Wildlife Institute of India will use geographic information systems (GIS) to collate the data and identify prospective carnivorous density sites for camera installation.

The camera traps would be put in the third phase, and the divisions would be required to submit the data acquired by January 2022 for study.

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