Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Wildlife census in Coimbatore

Staff Reporter

Coimbatore: The Forest Department, Coimbatore is organising a wildlife census on March 3 and 4 to take stock of the wildlife population.

The District Forest Officer, Coimbatore, I. Anwardeen said that the census exercise was being organised with the guidance of P.C. Tyagi, Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle.

The compiled data on wildlife presence would help forest managers in assessing the habitat condition and the health of the eco-system besides guiding the department in planning the future management strategies.

Based on the statistics, officials plan to step up habitat improvement programmes by creating more water holes and enhancing availability of fodder and food for herbivores that would form part of the prey-base for carnivores, the officials said.

On Saturday and Sunday, nearly 100 volunteers, primarily students and 100 forest department personnel would undertake the block count i.e., direct counting method to enumerate the wildlife population in the 693 sq km area spread over in the six ranges i.e., Sirumugai, Mettuppalayam, Karamadai, Periyanaickenpalayam, Pooluvampatti and Coimbatore.

The wildlife biologist of the Department, K. Ramkumar, who is co-ordinating the census, said that in all the 43 beats there would be two volunteers each along with forest personnel doing the block count census.

The census would primarily focus on wildlife with diurnal behaviour with a special focus on elephants.

The exercise was being organised before the onset of the acute summer season to take stock of wildlife before they started migrating in search of water and food.

During the census, the enumerators would also make note of the pugmarks under the indirect count method to assess the age and sex of the animal.

This data would be an indication of the health of the habitat as well as that of the wildlife population.

Subsequently, the department has proposed to conduct a water hole count for the carnivores.

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