The Hindu : National : Jumbo count in Nilgiri reserve

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Monday, May 02, 2005

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National

Jumbo count in Nilgiri reserve

Data will help analyse family structure and population trend

MYSORE: A three-day elephant census will begin at Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks from May 5. The exercise is part of a nation-wide effort to ascertain the approximate number of wildlife elephants in the country. The census techniques, including block count, line transact method and waterhole count, will help in studying the family size and structure and population trend among the pachyderms.

Yatish Kumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bandipur National Park, said about 30 per cent of the forest area was covered in the block count method. Dung counting would be undertaken in the line transacts. Selected waterholes in the forests would be observed to count the numbers, which may throw light on the family size and structure. The available data would be correlated to arrive at a final figure of the number of elephants in the area. He said the two Parks were part of the 5,000-sq.km Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the first of its kind in the country. Part of a large forest tract spread across 13,000 sq.km, it supports about 6,300 elephants.

In the Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve in Baripada, Orissa, the final round of census, based on a new methodology called dung-heap count and dung density estimates, was completed on Sunday. — UNI

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