19 May 2005, Dehradun
Amid growing concern over the dwindling tiger population in the country, the Uttaranchal forest department today began a fortnight-long wildlife census in all its national parks and sanctuaries, including the famous Jim Corbett and Rajaji Parks.
The biennial exercise began this morning with the counting of elephants in Chilla range of Rajaji park, known worldwide for its Asiatic elephants.
For smooth conduct of counting, the Rajaji Park has been closed for tourists for a fortnight till June three, chief wildlife warden Shirikant Chandola said here.
However, the Jim Corbett National Park would remain open but the movement of tourists will be restricted in certain areas, Chandola said adding, the census would be completed by June seven.
According to the official 2003 census, the tiger population decreased to 245 in the state as compared to the previous figure of 251 in 2001. However, leopard population showed a marked improvement of 6.57 per cent to 2090 (2003) from the previous figure of 1961 (2001).
The population of elephants also increased by 4.97 per cent to 1,582 in 2003 from 1,507 in 2001, the census figures showed.
An army of 3,000 trained forest personnel have been deployed to carry out the massive exercise, he said.
Rajaji Park Director G S Pandey, who is in-charge of the census in all the three circles- Shivalik, Yamuna and Bhagirathi-in Garhwal region said the number of elephants would be counted by their sightings on May 19,21 and 23, while counting of tigers and leopards would be done from May 28 to June three.
Other animals would be counted from June five to June seven on head-count basis, he said.
The whole process would be completed by the first week of next month and the final data was expected to be available by the end of the next month, Pandey said.
He said for counting of tigers and leopards, the traditional pug mark technique was being used, however, the big cats would be counted again November this year under the project tiger and then the modern techniques would be used as per the suggestion by the central government.
News Source: http://www.outlookindia.com
RELATED NEWS