Tiger census goes fully digital
For the first time, tiger enumeration across the country would go pen-less and paperless due to the use of the Polygon Search and Patrol apps.
For the first time, the counting of tigers is going fully digital across the country. Softwares have been used earlier in the enumeration of tigers but in a limited manner, as pilot projects during the last cycle of counting, which was spread across 2018 and 2019.
The digital part comes in the form of two mobile apps, Polygon Search and Patrol, and the M-STrIPES (Monitoring System For Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) software.
The software
Polygon Search and Patrol were conceived and developed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. M-STrIPES was introduced by NTCA and the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Environment.
All the mobile phones needed for the app-based enumeration are being provided by the government, as well as the training to use the apps. The enumerators would depend on both direct sighting and indirect evidence collection in the form of scats (the method of collecting faeces, which are then used for genetic sampling) and pugmark or paw mark collection (collected by making plaster of Paris moulds of the impressions).
The tiger census is going fully pen-less and paperless because of the Polygon Search and Patrol apps.
The Polygon Search app is used to quantify the data collected through the indirect search methods of scats and pugmark collection. A large area of forest is divided into polygons (squares in this case) of certain square kilometres each and then faeces collected and impressions of pugmarks made from each area.
The M-STrIPES software uses GPS, GPRS and remote sensing to collect information from the field in real-time, then creates a database and analyses the information using GIS and statistical tools to provide inferences that allow tiger reserve managers (rangers, etc.) to better manage their wildlife resources.
The Patrol app is a module of the M-StrIPES software. It records the track a forest official walks and permits the user to geotag the sightings of tigers and even other animals or signs (prey base) that help in the estimation of tigers. It also allows the sending of geotagged location data to specified phone numbers in case of emergency (SOS function). The mobile app can continue to operate in areas without a phone network by using the phone’s inbuilt GPS and preloaded base maps.
The enumeration
In one of the largest and unique tiger habitats of the world, the mangrove forests of the Sunderbans, the counting would begin from December 5. The entire process in the Sunderbans will be over by February next year. In the forests of north Bengal, the exercise will begin in January.
Most of Bengal’s tigers live in the Sunderbans, though, where trap cameras are being installed at 748 locations. In north Bengal, 75-odd trap cameras are being set up.
Along with tigers, a census of big herbivores like deer, antelopes, guars, rhinoceroses and elephants, among others, would also be conducted.
