Officials expect Kalakad tiger count to go up

Kalakad and Mundanthurai are well-known for housing tiger sanctuaries in the southern Western Ghats. The extensive area is also famous for cheetah, spotted deer, wild boar, bison and other wild animals. 

Till 2015, an annual exercise was carried out to carry out the animal count in the tiger sanctuary. 

From 2016, the census exercise has been planned twice a year, one before monsoon and one after monsoon. As planned, the post monsoon census was carried out in February, 2016, and the pre-monsoon count began on Thursday. Fifty-three Forest officials and wildlife enthusiasts, in 11 batches began the massive exercise. 

Pug marks and excreta of animals, apart from direct sightings are the standard measures taken into account while carrying out the census.

Four teams were sent to Kalakad sub-division, five teams to Thirukurungudi sub-division and two teams to Kodaiyaru sub-division. 

Speaking to DTNext, Elango, Forest Ranger, Mundanthurai Range, said that in the census four main carnivores have been targeted. Tiger, cheetah, dhole and bear are the four animals. 

If there are large number of carnivores in the forest, then it meant that the forest had lot of green cover and would provide livelihood to the people too. He added that if carnivores were to flourish there should be a large number of herbivores and if herbivores had to survive, there should be enough green cover in the forest and if green cover needs to be sustained then there should be enough water resource in the forest which will in turn support agriculture in nearby areas. 

He also claimed that the census exercise carried out after monsoon would yield precise results as pug marks would be more clear on wet surfaces. 

Last year, the count of tigers was close to 20 and they expected the count to go up since they had undertaken several conservation measures, said Elango. 

Census at Mundanthurai would commence on Friday and would go on for five days and in the exercise, the entire forest range would be covered.