BARIPADA: The authorities of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), are gearing up for an annual monitoring of wildlife in the protected forest in Mayurbhanj district.The monitoring titled ‘sign survey’ of wild animals will be carried out by the forest personnel from January 3. Forest officials said the survey would pave the way for the tiger census scheduled for 2014 as per the all India protocol. Regional Conservator of Forests (RCF) and STR Field Director Anup Nayak said the survey would be conducted to keep a close watch on the movement of wild animals. “The aim of the monitoring is to get a rough estimate of the wildlife population,” he said. The survey will be carried out in all the four divisions -- STR, Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia -- by 160 forest officials. Five ACFs, four DFOsand 20 rangers will monitor.During the survey, the forest officials will take samples of dung, urine, pugmarks, hand marks and several other factors to identify a particular animal. Besides, cry of the wild animals will also be recorded from early morning to late evening.In the first phase, carnivores like leopard and Royal Bengal Tiger will be taken into consideration. In the second phase, signs of herbivores like deer and spotted deer will be collected. “Though it is exactly not the wildlife census, it can be termed as pre-census through which we can get many clues about the wildlife population before we go for the final round of census that will be conducted through camera trapping method,” said a forest official.There has been a row over the population of RBT in STR for the last several years. Using pugmark method the STR authorities had counted 101 tigers in 2004, their number came down to 61 in 2009 census. The number was further challenged by National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institution of India, which indicated that STR has approximately 23 tigers as per 2010 census that was conducted by camera trap method. The forest officials did not conduct any census since the March 2009 Maoist attack.
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