Rajasthan:Traditional methods for wildlife census

Jaipur, May 2: The wildlife census has begun in Rajasthan today using traditional methods of waterhole and pugmark techniques.

Trained personnel and census volunteers have begun their rounds in the forest from 1000 hrs in the morning. Volunteers will do 24- hour-monitoring and study pugmarks and waterhole footprints to get an estimate of the number of wildlife in the forests.

Transit method of dividing the forest on the basis of vegetation will also be employed for the census. In this method, fixed lines are drawn across the forest and officials walk on these lines and count the number of animals they encounter on the way.

Vijay Kumar Salwan, wildlife expert, told sources that the traditional methods are more reliable than the modern ones, as they give a relatively correct estimate of the number of wildlife.

He said, ''Modern techniques like camera trap may not capture the animals who fail to cross the paths where they are installed.'' Adding that the impression pad method is the best, Mr Salwan said, ''It involved permanent impression pads at various junctions in the forest, which will indicate the number of tigers along with their territorial reach as they pass over them.'' He said the census is actually to check whether there is an increase in the number of endangered species rather than giving out the correct figure of animals. He added that the analysis of data collected is the most important.

State Wildlife Warden, R N Malhotra, said, ''Data from the traditional method would be compared with the figures obtained by modern methods like Digital footmark, Camera trap, Transit Lines, Satellite, Identification Caller, employed earlier by the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun.'' At Sariska, where no tigers are left, the pugmark method will be employed from May 4 to 13. The Transit Line will be used from May 14 to 18. Tourist and vehicle movement has been banned during the census.

UNI