New protocol to minimize error in counting tigers

In a bid to minimize errors on estimation of tiger population, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has made coverage of entire tiger reserve a must for the next phase of big cat population estimation.

Updated on: Apr 15, 2012, 14:46:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a bid to minimize errors on estimation of tiger population, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has made coverage of entire tiger reserve a must for the next phase of big cat population estimation.

Number of Indian and foreign tiger scientists have raised doubts over the latest tiger estimation figure of 1,706 putting a question marks over the methodology adopted. In most tiger reserves only the core-critical area was surveyed for tiger estimation.

Taking the criticism into account, the NTCA has updated the methodology and prescribed coverage of entire tiger reserves either by camera traps to take pictures of the animals or through DNA testing of the fecal.

“If the survey area is very large, tiger population size can be obtained by sampling a minimum block of 400 square kilometers at a time,” says the new tiger estimation guidelines circulated to the state forest departments governments.

The guidelines also say that if deployment of camera traps in an entire reserve or parts of it is not feasible for any reason, fecal DNA samples may be collected over the entire tiger reserve for capture-recapture analysis, methodology to cross check DNA findings with camera trap pictures.

To minimize the errors arising of keeping the camera traps open for a longer duration, the authority has prescribed the duration for which the camera trap should be opened and closed.

“Keeping the camera open can lead to higher estimation of tigers,” said K Ullas Karanth, director Bangalore based Centre for Wildlife Studies, who had questioned the methodology of earlier tiger estimation.

A key to estimate the tiger population correctly is the prey population. A particular habitat can support a certain number of prey population. Higher or lower prey population indicates lesser number of tigers. And, experts in the past had raised eyebrows over NTCA estimation of the prey population.

The NTCA has stipulated new software called DISTANCE to estimate prey density. The forest departments have been asked to ensure that the date on prey population to be feed into the software should be done with the help of experts to prevent errors.

The state forest departments have been asked to take help of experts such as scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India to analyse the data collected. The experts should have knowledge of capture-recapture methodology and fecal analysis.

Karanth said the new NTCA protocols will enable state forest departments to formally collaborate with qualified scientists, and enable them to move up a ladder of technical progress. “They will also move from estimating minimum numbers of tigers to robust estimates of population density, change in numbers over time, survival and other crucial parameters,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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