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Monday, Aug 03, 2009
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Wildlife census taken

P.V.Srividya

TIRUCHI: A one-day wildlife census was conducted at Point Calimere Wild Life Sanctuary in Vedaranyam by the Forest Department on Sunday.

The census covered about 400 hectares (ha) of the total area of 1,650 ha. It was carried out by 165 people, including 130 students from seven colleges based on Kings technique of ‘direct-transect count.’

The participants were divided into 25 transects with five to six members in each transect led by a team leader from the Forest Department. The teams were dropped at their respective transects. The census began at 6 a.m. and lasted for about three hours with groups traversing a stretch of about 2 km, recording the details as per the data sheet.

The teams were given an orientation on Saturday on the objectives and techniques involved. Besides its ‘flag-ship’ species of black bucks, Point Calimere is also home to the spotted deer, feral pony, wild boar, jackal, mongoose, bonnet macaque, black-naped hare and Indian star tortoise. A similar census for birds will be held in the first week of January.

The animal census is usually held in the dry season of April, when animals wander out enabling easy visibility.

“Last April saw two days of heavy cyclonic rain and area was water-logged. Hence, we had to postpone it to this date,” said V.Thirunavukarasu, District Forest Officer, Nagapattinam, who is the Wildlife Warden of the Sanctuary. “In science even zero data are data and we encourage students to come back with not just what they see but also what they don’t see,” said S. Balachandran, Assistant Director, Bombay Natural History Society, which assists the Forest Department in sanctuary conservation.

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