No wildlife headcount this year…….Simit Bhagat
MUMBAI: It’s official now. There will be no wildlife census in Mumbai and Thane region this year. The headcount usually takes place in May every year.
“Earlier this year, we carried out a density estimation survey by using the line transect method, which has been jointly developed by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA),” said a forest official.
Some of the forests that were covered in the survey were Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary and Karnala Bird Sanctuary.
S A Thorat, chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Mumbai, said, that his department would soon submit the data to WII, Dehradun. “We are in the process of finalising the data. The annual census has been cancelled as we had carried out a six-day survey using the line transect method in January,” he explained.
The line transect method, believed to be more scientific and accurate, is used in tiger reserves and national parks across the country.
A K Joshi, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), Maharashtra, said, “The line transect method is highly sophisticated and gives a fairly accurate estimation of the wildlife in the forests. We have decided to do away with the old pug mark census method and adopt the new method for the census.”
Many nature lover, however, are disappointed. NGO Hariyali’s Saurabh Thakekar, who has been helping the officials carry out the census at the SGNP for the last four years, said, “I am shocked. We were not aware of the line transect survey. The forest officials didn’t involve us in the process.”
Said Krishna Tiwari of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), “It is good that old techniques of counting the animals are being done away with. However, forest officials should have involved some NGOs and there should have been more transparency in the way the line transect process was carried out.”