The reason being that forest officials are uncertain about the movement of the tigers. Some debating that the tigers move about in straight lines and others saying that they move in a geometrically rectangular lines.
Authorities of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, in fact, has been holding training camps and discussions with the Wildlife Institute of India for about a year on how to bring about a protocol.
A highly placed state forest official, who was part of the NTCA's southern region workshop held at Bandipur recently, says that the conservation zoologist and leading tiger expert, K. Ullas Karanth, from Karnataka, was also part of the meeting.
“The protocol will cover the tiger's habitat and their prey. Suggestions made by individual experts such as Ullas, will be included in the protocol. The protocol, in fact, is the result of a goof-up because now no one knows exactly how many tigers are there," the official commented.
The monitoring process is special because it would be for the first time that the authorities will use a camera trap method in a concerted, unified manner, across the country to get an accurate picture of the dwindling tiger population in the country.
“Once done, we plan to make it a regular feature," the official revealed. The monitoring will definitely take place. However, no one will hazard a guess when! For, Ullas Karanth has insisted on a rectangular transect for the tiger monitoring exercise. Read the full report here.
Source: by T.S. Sreenivasa Raghavan, Deccan Chronicle, Kochi.
