Now, cameras to track wild animals

Mahbubnagar: The Forest officials of Mannanur, Amrabad and Domalpenta forest range have started installing cameras in the forests to capture the movements of wild animals.

According to the officials, till recently they were following age-old and unscientific methods to count the number of wild animals, birds, and other small animals in the forests.

“The old method of counting animals by examining their paws, dung and other features is not giving us a clear picture of the number of tigers, panthers, cheetahs, deers, birds, butterflies and other animals in the forest.

To access the clear picture of the animals in the forest, we have decided to install cameras for the first time. These cameras will capture the pictures of the animals and will give us a clear figure of the forest dwellers,” said M C Pargaien, Field Director of Amrabad Tiger Reserve.

To cover the entire forest with cameras, the officials have divided the forest into 3 blocks - Mannanur Block, Amarabad Block and Domalapenta Block.

Each block has an extent of 400 square kilometers and will be installed with 100 cameras in each block. “We have recently completed the installation of 100 cameras in Mannanur Block.

After this, we are focusing on installing the cameras in Amarabad and Domalapenta blocks. We will complete the installation process in the next few days,” informed Pargaien.

To assist the Forest Range Officers and the Forest staff in installing the cameras, two NGOs namely WCS from Bangalore and Hyticos from Hyderabad have also been associated in the programme.

Recently the Forest officials revealed the statistics of wild animals in the Nallamalla Tiger Reserve. According to the statistics, there are about 17 tigers and 45 cheetahs living in the Tiger Reserve.

This number is slightly less than that of last year’s figure of 22 tigers and 48 cheetahs.

While explaining about the various steps taken up by the Forest authorities to protect the wild life, the Director also explained the comprehensive strategy to take care of water demands of animals during summer and creation of fire lines to contain the wild animals from venturing out of their habitats.

“Apart from taking steps to meet the drinking water needs, we also create fire lines to prevent them from venturing out and also regularly create awareness programmes among the children in the surrounding areas about the importance of wild animals and their protection,” said the Director.