Forest minister Ananta Ray said: “Ever since a glimpse of a tiger was caught in a camera in March, we decided it was time for more specific information on the big cats at Buxa." On March 31, a sub-adult tiger was spotted in the Chunijhora beat of Hatipota range of BTR.
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R P Saini, BTR field director, said on Tuesday: “Camera trapping is the most accurate method of ascertaining the actual number of big cats, only after DNA analysis of scat. As we have already sent our scat collections to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and are awaiting their results sometime in October, we thought we should start camera trapping in the meantime." He said 20 spots have been identified for installing the cameras. Funds for the camera trapping (each camera will cost Rs 12,000) will come from the forest department's budget. “The cameras will give accurate pictures of individual tigers. They are far more accurate than the pugmark technology of tiger enumeration. Each tiger has his own stripe pattern. Once the pictures are in place, we will be able to scan different, individual tigers," said Saini.
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Like DNA analysis, camera trapping will also take some time. For instance, it may take six months to a year for complete implementation of the camera trapping project. “It may take another year to get accurate pictures of most of the tigers in BTR," said Saini. The forest department estimates that around 16-20 big cats live in BTR at present. “Sighting tigers is extremely difficult at BTR because of its rough and dense terrain. There is hardly any grassland there, which makes the job all the more arduous," said Saini. Read the full report here.
Source: Times News Network, Kolkata
