OOTY: The week-long post-monsoon animal population estimation and habitat evaluation at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) got underway on Monday with foresters and volunteers trailing across MTR for the count.
V.A.Saravanan, MTR deputy director, said that as per the ‘National Tiger Conservation Authority’ norms, tiger reserves have to conduct two biannual animal population estimations, one during pre-monsoon and another in the post-monsoon period, to evaluate the health of the habitat and the population of animals.
“For this year’s post-monsoon animal population estimation purpose, the MTR woods have been divided into 36 transect zones. Around 80 persons, including MTR staff, volunteers from Green organizations and student volunteers are taking part in the evaluation exercise. The teams in different transect zones will study the movement of animals in their zones and the wealth of the prey base for the tiger and other carnivores, the wealth of flora, fodder availability and water sources. This will give a comprehensive data on the population and movement of big cats and also other animals in the MTR in the post-monsoon period when winter has begun to set in,” he explained.
“Foresters at MTR will analyze the data and compare it with figures of previous estimations to ascertain the health and wealth of wildlife and also find out if there are any abnormal changes to take necessary remedial measures,” Saravanan added. He added that various parameters like direct sighting, identifying footprints and droppings would be taken into account to record the movement of the animals in each of the transect zones.
