National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC), has appreciated the efforts of forest departments of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (MP) for good management with proper co-ordination between two states for Pench Tiger Reserve which falls in both states. Satya Prakash Yadav, ADG of Forest (Project Tiger) and Member Secretary (NTCA) chaired a two-day review meeting in Nagpur on Thursday to check the arrangements and progress made by forest departments to conduct the upcoming country-wide Tiger Census which is going to be held in 2022.

 

The meeting was held for the 20 tiger reserves of six states of Central region that is Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Surendra Mehra, DIG (Forest), NTCA, B S Hooda, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Protection), Field Directors of all six states and Chief Wildlife Wardens of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were present during the meeting. Member Secretary appreciated the efforts of field directors of Pench Tiger Reserve for conducting inter-state meetings and advised to follow the same pattern of meetings to other tiger reserves that are sharing boundaries in different states.

 

“Member Secretary was satisfied with the preparation that is underway for smooth conducting of tiger census next year,” said R S Govekar, Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Pench Tiger Reserve to The Hitavada. The next review meeting of NTCA will be held in Kaziranga for Southern region. NTCA introduced technology based tiger census in 2018. The senior officials discussed about new technologies and how to conduct the census smoothly also discussed. The loopholes and the preparations by the states were also discussed during the meeting. “Member Secretary instructed us to purchase more camera traps and also asked to raise demand for purchase of camera traps and other equipment to the Ministry,” said Govekar.

 

The last Tiger Census of India, the largest ever done in the world that confirmed the current tiger population in India has increased to 2,967, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records as being the biggest tiger survey ever. The tiger census was first conducted across the country in 2006 using a demarcation system developed by the Indian Wild life Institute (WII), Dehradun. Country experienced the largest ever camera trap wildlife survey in 2018 and this year also the technology will be used to count tiger. The actual process of tiger counting will start from October this year in all the forests across the country. As per the tiger census 2018, there are 312 tigers in Maharashtra which was recorded three times than 2006 when the first census took place.