Staff training for statewide wildlife census to start Monday

Officials of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, will start training field staff in four forest circles on Monday, marking the start of Haryana’s first statewide wildlife census

Officials of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, will start training field staff in four forest circles on Monday, marking the start of Haryana’s first statewide wildlife census. The census will be conducted by the state forest department in collaboration with experts from WII.

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As per current plans, 59 beats in the Shivalik forests and 38 beats in the Aravalli forests will be surveyed.

ML Rajvanshi, the chief conservator of forests for wildlife in the state, said, “We will start training forest staff in four forests circles; Panchkula, Hisar, Rohtak and Gurugram, for sign surveys, distance sampling and using of an online mobile application that will be used for the census. This is the first time that a statewide wildlife census survey is being conducted both inside and outside the protected areas, the results of which will help us in forming better strategies to manage man-animal conflict in the state.”

The forest department officials are aiming to assess the abundance and distribution of major mammalian carnivore population and prey population inside the protected areas. The census will also focus on assessing the abundance and distribution of nilgai and rhesus macaque in a human-dominated landscape outside the protected areas, which will help the forest department in making better strategies to manage man-animal conflict.

Rajvanshi said that based on a line transect survey, a range of the number of animals (particularly simians and ungulates) found in the area is noted, which helps in estimating the population of the species.

Bilal Habib, a senior scientist with the department of animal ecology and conservation biology, WII, said, “We will first be training the forest staff after which a beat level survey by the staff will be conducted, followed by a camera trapping exercise by the WII team. We have estimated to place around 100 camera traps across forest areas in Gurugram, Kalesar and Morni hills, as we already know that leopards are found in these areas, but if signs are found in other places based on the beat level survey, then those areas will also be camera trapped.”

The census will also cover the status of the population of major avian species like peafowl, red junglefowl, and sarus crane in the state. Habib said that the presence of these three species indicate that the forests are in good and healthy condition.