NAGPUR: State's principal chiefconservator of forests (wildlife) Dinesh Chandra Pant has set August 31 as deadline for all the remaining forest divisions in the state to submit data on tiger census conducted between January 28 and February 3.
Pant told TOI that of the 76 forest divisions including those in Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), only 36 had submitted the data so far. "We are in constant touch with the remaining divisions and have asked them to submit the data by month-end," he added.
In the six-day exercise (phase I), carnivore sign survey, ungulate encounter rate, and habitat quality was done by sampling of beats and variety of features were recorded by moving on transect lines drawn in 5,838 beats. The data feeding is in its final stage in respective divisions. It is being submitted on a CD to chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Nandkishore's office at Nagpur.
Earlier, a deadline of April 30 was set. It was later extended to July 31 and it has finally been set for August 31 by Pant. Pant said there were certain technical problems and corrections had to be made. Secondly, at many divisions, officials who were trained in data feeding got transferred recently resulting in delay.
The collected data would be submitted to Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, which would come out with the estimated tiger numbers most likely in November. Prior to that, intensive monitoring of source population with the help of photo identity, radio telemetry, sign surveys for three months would be done before declaring final figures.
In Maharashtra, over 5,000 sq km area having tiger presence was scanned. Although are keeping their fingers crossed, they expect the numbers to go up with new cubs and tigers being sighted in some new areas even after first phase of data collection.
"In 2007, when a similar census was conducted, the data collected was not up to the mark as field staff had not got clear view of new methodology. This time, a serious exercise was done and many left out areas were also covered. This will not necessarily mean more or less tigers, but there will be greater accuracy in estimation," a senior wildlife wing official said.
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