BHUBANESWAR: Trap cameras set up in Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) as part of the state’s headcount of tigers have spotted 35 Royal Bengal tigers, a senior state government official said on Monday.
Odisha ordered the headcount after the ‘All India Tiger Estimation’ report suggested that the state’s tiger numbers have dropped from 28 in 2018 to 20 in 2022. In the Similipal tiger reserve, the report commissioned by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) estimated 16 tigers.
STR director Prakash Gogineni said: “The complete data about the tigers will be known in January when the census gets over. It is learnt from the camera trap that there are about 35 Royal Bengal Tigers in the reserve. A clear picture will emerge after the counting concludes,” he said,
The Odisha government started its tiger census in October to back up its charge that the tiger census in STR did not accurately reflect the tiger population, arguing that a limited number of camera traps were put up. Besides, Odisha officials said the NTCA-led did not take into account suitable habitats in southern Odisha.
State wildlife officials argued that the NTCA methodology did not accurately reflect the presence, habitat occupancy and number of tigers in Odisha due to low sampling intensity.
“The NTCA report earlier said Similipal tiger reserve had a management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) score of 90.15 per cent which placed it among the 12 excellent tiger reserves of the country. We failed to understand how the number of tigers went down so much with such an MEE score,” a senior state official asked.