Tiger Census

Context:

Tiger census will commence at Bandipur and at Nagarahole as part of the All-India Tiger and Mega Herbivore Estimation.
This is part of the nation-wide enumeration that is held once in four years and is the fifth such exercise being taken up — the earlier ones being held in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018.
The authorities at Bandipur have divided the 912.04 sq km national park into three blocks to carry out the enumeration. While the enumeration exercise will be held in block 1 from January 22 to 27, it will be held in block 2 from January 28 to February 2 and the tiger count exercise in block 3 will be taken up from February 3 to 8.
This year’s enumeration exercise entails the use of MSTRIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app and apart from the tiger counts, the exercise will also throw up data on mega herbivores, including elephants and gaurs.
The use of apps ensures that the data is not only digitised but is uploaded on a real-time basis and is robust.
The training was imparted by experts from Wildlife Institute of India and the enumeration is being held as per the protocols stipulated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
In the 2018 census, there were 125 tigers in Nagarahole whereas there were 72 tigers in the 2014 exercise which was a big jump.
But experts believe the tiger numbers at both Bandipur and Nagarahole may have reached their optimum levels and could have stabilised or shown a marginal increase this year

Every 4 years the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) conducts a tiger census across India.
The first was conducted in 2006, followed by 2010 and in 2014.
The Census (2014) had reported 2,226 tigers in the country, up from 1,706 in 2010.
The fourth tiger census (All India Tiger Estimation 2018-19) estimated to be released in May 2019.

M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) is an app based monitoring system, launched across Indian tiger reserves by the NTCA in 2010. The system would enable field managers to assist intensity and spatial coverage of patrols in a geographic information system (GIS) domain.

Source: THE HINDU.