JOIN USForest officers in the district are all set to participate in the three-day synchronised elephant census that will begin across six states on Tuesday.
Chamarajanagar district has the distinction of having the highest density of elephant population in the State. Bandipur National Park, Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger Reserve Forest, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Kollegal Forest Division are other important habitats for elephants in the State.
More than 600 enumerators, including forest watchers, students of forestry colleges, volunteers and representatives of NGOs working in the field of wildlife will take part in the census in the district’s forest region.
As per the directive of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the elephant enumeration is conducted once in every five years.
Conducting elephant census is crucial as it goes a long way in protecting elephant population, their habitats, corridors, resolving man-animal conflict and mapping male-female ratio among elephants. Moreover, every state will have to take up enumeration of elephants once in two years. The census was last conducted in the State in 2010.
This time too three methods will be employed to enumerate elephants. On May 22, the first day, elephants will be enumerated using the Block Count method, wherein elephants are counted from random samples selected across the entire division.
A team of two to three people will record all elephant sightings on the block count data sheet. Also, the team has to take a photograph of the herd.In the Line Transect Method on the second day, elephant density will be estimated through enumeration of dung, an indirect evidence.
Through density of dung, defecation and decay rates, the density of pachyderms is estimated.On the third day, teams will wait near perennial waterholes from 7 am to 6 pm and record the sightings of elephants. This method, called Waterhole Count Method, is used to determine the age and sex of the elephants.
“Similar preparations have been made for elephant census at Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger Reserve Forest. As many as 200 members, including 60 volunteers, will participate in the enumeration,” said Vijay Mohan Raj, Conservator of Forests and Director of BRT Tiger Project.