Getting the count right
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Mail Today
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New Delhi
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24 Apr 2012
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For Long, conservation scientists and forest officials have been at loggerheads regarding the tiger count in the country. After nearly three years of negotiations, the National Tiger Conservation Agency has decided to change its protocols for tiger monitoring based on inputs from scientists.
The change would let forest departments in different states to formally collaborate with scientists and get professional technical help for estimating population density, change in numbers over time, survival and other parameters. The protocol specifies strict standards for conduct of `camera trap` and fecal DNA methods for surveying source populations of tigers. Standards have been laid down for estimating prey density as well.
The new methodology would work in tandem with a national tiger photographic database to be developed and maintained by the agency.
Dr K. Ullas Karanth of wildlife Conservation Society -India, who helped develop the protocol, hopes that collaboration between scientists and forest officials would make the monitoring process transparent and bring scientific rigour to data collection and analysis.
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