TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Claims and counter claims about presence of Tigers in Goa may now be settled, with State forest department gearing up to conduct wildlife census in April.
Environment Minister Alina Saldanha on Friday announced that forest department would carry out an exhaustive wildlife census in all five wildlife sanctuaries, national park and the reserve forest areas of the State in coordination with Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun and local NGOs. “The census would clear all the claims about the presence of wildlife,” she said.
The census will make assessment of animals and their habitat including the study of whether there is proper fodder available for herbivorous animals. It will be one of the biggest census ever of its kind conducted by the forest department.
Speaking to Herald, Conservator of Forest (CCF) D N F Carvalho said that the census in all the protected areas would begin from April. WII will provide the methodology to the department and will be arriving in Goa on February 9 to conduct two day training programme for the forest officials.
The census would be carried out by using camera trap method.
Carvalho said that census would help us in knowing the presence of tiger in Goa. “There are several claims about existence of tigers in Goa. Also they being migratory animals,” he stated.
The state forest department had earlier conducted such census during 2002, 2006 and in 2010. Though, forest department failed to get the result of 2006 census, the 2010 census had surprised many due to its claim about the presence of five tigers in Goa’s wild, with increased number of leopards and wild dogs.
Under pressure, the forest department had in 2013 conducted special tiger survey to ascertain their presence. Though, the survey revealed presence of tigers, forest department did not have the courage to declare Mhadei wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve.
The Wildlife Census conducted by the Goa Forest Department had indicated the presence of three and five tigers respectively in 1993 and 1997 also. The 2010 census had revealed that Goa’s wildlife sanctuaries have remained undisturbed and healthy for wild animals.
