Susan Welcome to IWC chat on " Tiger Census"

Imran S Hi Susan

Susan Welcome !

Imran S All over Census started on 16th and volunteers are already on field.

 Imran S Ok, So Susan what shall we talk on

Susan Tell us how GIS is used in tiger census

swetha hi every one, Iam interested in wild life

Susan Welcome Swetha

swetha Iam interested in wild life and to know a lot about wild life

swetha thank you susan

Susan Do you find our website useful in giving some info?

swetha i am online for the first time

Imran S Susan lets discuss about TIger Census

swetha i dont have any specific interest in any animal bez i feel all animals are important and have equal importance

Susan Yes, Imran waiting for you to tell us about GIS

swetha ok lets talk about tiger census

Imran S GIS is gonna play major role in Census this year

Imran S But lets discuss the latest methodology. Till date this is first time that we are trying to do census not based on Pugmarks only

Imran S Since 1970 when One forester Chowdary wrote a paper in one Journal, we used to do census basing on the count of pugmarks of each animal

Imran S It was simple said but very complex in execution, Forest Guards, Volunteers etc. spread out in forest

Imran S Specially in lean month of May when water is little in forest streams and waterholes, tigers or leopards have to visit these waterholes atleast once a day

Imran S So having known about the presence of waterholes and their location, Officials go and prepare Pug Impression Pads(PIPs). PIPs are nothing but on each entrace to waterhole on animal trails earth is cleaned and fine sand is put using a mesh making a soft layer on which it is easy to trace and locate pugmarks.

Susan That is very interesting. the details are..

swetha ok

Imran S Animal has to pass through this PIP and early in morning we are supposed to check for pugmarks

Susan As long as the pugmarks are taken correctly, this could have been a cost effective method.

 Imran S of course

 Imran S Pugmarks are looked for on Cart tracks, Near lakebeds, on River beds. Animals normally avoid stony ways, So they walk on a trail which is like a Kacha Rasta in forest.

Imran S Often referred as Game Trails

swetha ok

Imran S On such intersections also PIPs are useful; So pugmarks are collected from whatever possible sources-near a kill, beside roads or jeep tracks etc.

Imran S And this is collected for 1 week

Imran S Teams are formed for the purpose and each team is given some area

 Jayant Hello everyone

Susan Welcome Jayant

Imran S Now as most animals are territorial it becomes mandatory for that territorial Leopard or Tiger to visit atleast one water hole

Imran S So these pugmarks are collected and assemebled in office on the final night

Jayant It's good to be back after may days

Imran S   Hi Jayant!

Imran S These are put on maps and Duplicates are tried to be removed

Imran S Temeperatures can soar from 45 -48 in May

Jayant in 1990 & 91 I was a team member for leaopard census in Bhimashankar WLS

Imran S Anyways these are analysed u can know Sexes, Species and some say also individuals

Imran S Ok

Jayant I would like to know how do you use a GIS

Imran S Tigers have  huge pugmarks

swetha Hi jayant this is swetha

Imran S Lets come to it Swetha is new to this I think

Imran S  Anything less than 5 cms u can ignore to be cats; Leopards are 8-11 CMs; and tigers are 13-17 cms

Jayant especailly around human settlements as it could be dogs!

swetha ok but i want to know is there any way to identify tiger and leapord pug mark

Imran S If cubs happen to be there Mothers pugmarks will be accompanied

Imran S Yeah the size and shape

swetha what if its a baby tiger or a baby lepord

Imran S Dogs pugmarks are longish size around 8-12 cms

Imran S We need to have a mother nearby, as Cubs small will not be seen alone

swetha ok

Imran S No But listen, Dogs have a nail mark on there impressions

Jayant Jim corbett's Jungle Lore is a good book to read on this jungle signs

 Imran S And if u observe u can differentiate between Wolf, Village Dog, Wild Dog, Hyena, Jackal etc..

Imran S Ok, I read it long ago.

Imran S Jayanth it is such fun looking at these pugmarks and coming to conclusions .. isnt it

Jayant on a jungle trail it is fun to read all these signs and infer from them correctly.

Jayant you bet its is

Imran S Anyways Sub Adult tiger and leopard can be mixup

Imran S But Leopards pugmark are more compact and once u see them u will not forget

Jayant true

Jayant as we are running out of time can we come to the mapping part

Imran S But for Leopard it looks that palm is in propotion for its fingers, unless they fall on loose soil they look quite close to each other

Imran S And for Tiger Cubs it will be something like spread out, with palm relatively bigger for the fIngers

Imran S Mapping is nothing but a trail which is geographically known.

Imran S See every point on earth has a Lat-Long information

Susan Jayant, the session is so interesting, do not worry about time .

Imran S so whenever we get some evidence we try to take that location and put that on map

Imran S This when put on that sancturies map will let u know where is that animal moving

Imran S See GIS is huge field, but I am talking only about census use

Jayant I was a GIS user once upon a time, also I know it would be a useful tool here

Imran S Now a new method had ben proposed by Project tiger Directorate

 Imran S Yeah in this

Jayant  Ionly want to know if it is used nowadays for wildlife census.

Imran S We cannot search each part of sanctuary as they are quite large.

 Imran S So a method of sampling is so useful, Randomly we draw say 20 lines in forest

Imran S Each line is 4 kms long; First drawn on GIS map taking the LAt-Long we put this on the field.

Imran S that is we colour the tress in a line of 4 kms

 Imran S on this we do sampling

Imran S 1. Sampling for TIger leopard and other carnivores encounter rates. 2. Herbivore encounter rate. 3. Pellets vegetation and human disturbance encounter

swetha ok

Susan Encounter by pugmarks?

Imran S This is put on map; Since trail is based on map it will run from any place to anyplace

Imran S Any direct or Indirect evidences of which pugmark is one

Jayant these maps would be very intresting to analyse.

Imran S Exactly, jayanth

Imran S since this is just sample of what really is in forest, GIs can use this data and we can determine the total poulation using simple statistics

Imran S These tracks are also determined by GIS

Imran S Like of 20 trails, 5 in dense forest , 5 in open forest 5 passing through streams and hills

Jayant Are wateholes also marked here?

Imran S each 5 kms away form each other

Imran S Now u are not going to favourite habiats

Imran S yeah waterholes data is also put into GIS analysis

Imran S This method of sampling may not give exact count

Imran S But a very good estimate of preybase of tigers

Imran S That will determine the health of that forest

Imran S Whereas for tiger counts one has to use camera trapping

Jayant This is an estimate and qute good for the resource input

swetha ok

Imran S First initial surveys are done to determine what are waterholes and movememnt of big cats

Jayant personnally i am against radio collaring etc

Susan There must be a way of looking at incremental census of prey base -that is what can indicate levels of decrease or increase in large carnivorous.

Imran S yes, susan, this has to be done for many years in all the seasons

 Imran S like in Summer the visibility in forest may be good

Jayant ok i have to leave now. it was a very learning expericene for me here today

Jayant Thanks Imran. Sweta and Susan for this great time

Imran S Or in Rains there will be less litter allowing us to go near animals

 Susan Thanks for coming Jayant See you more often!

Imran S thanks jayanth

Susan Imran, what happened to the Tadoba Census where you asked for volunteers?

swetha THANK YOU JAYANT

Imran S Sweta read this http://www.moef.gov.bd/document/Final_TigerCensus_-2004.pdf

Imran S Yeah problem was that forest dept were finding difficult to give permission only for weekends

Imran S so they asked for people shud come for 10-15 days in a row

swetha I will be happy if we continue the chat for some more time

Susan Is there a census on there now?

Imran S in the end we had only 5 volunteers going for that

Imran S hehe!!

 Imran S In whole of india it is on now

Imran S WHere do u live swetha

Susan Shwetha, what would you like the topic for next month to be?

 Imran S In forest only thing to worry is Bears, else u can literally walk alone in forest no animal will harm u

swetha i am from Hyderabad

Imran S And Elephants

Imran S Hey, thats cool

Imran S Y dont u go for census now tommorow

Imran S I will arrange everything

swetha I WANT TO KNOW TIGERS HAPITIDES

Susan Do you mean habitats?

swetha ok

Imran S Are u interested to join census now

 Imran S See we have a group called Hyderabad Tiger conservation society or HYTICOS

Susan Imran One boy from Mumbai is interested . I will forward his mail to you

Imran S Do u know about that, or do u know about WWF or Kids for Tigers

swetha yes i am intersted

Imran S See our volunteers must be in bus now can u call now

Imran S Asif 98852 44925 or Akhil 988598980

swetha i heard about it

Imran S anyways how old are u

Imran S and what u do, I am also from Hyderabad but now in Dubai

 Imran S We work in Kawal Willdife sanctuary for past 5 years for Conservation

swetha i am 26yr

Imran S good enough, I mean old enough, u can join, i f u want I will put u in Kawal

swetha i am interested in joining you all but i dont have any contact no to reach any one

Imran S Akhil 988598980

swetha i am happy to know that you are helping our wild life

swetha is he from hyderabad

Imran S or call 08739 246202 G Ravinder Reddy

Imran S Tell him that u want to Join with Asif Akhil and Imran has sent u to him

Imran S Akhil is in Bus now going to Kawal WLS

Imran S Kawal WLS is in Adilabad 240 Kms form Hyd

Imran S we have good accomodation there and census has just started

Imran S we have 16-18 tigers in that Sanctuary,

swetha i want to join them is it posible to join them on sat morning

Imran S dont miss that if u can afford time

Imran S There can be no better chance to learn more about census and wildife

Susan I have forwarded a mail from Azhar Kazi to you just now. He wants to volunteer too.

Imran S Ok call them now before they go out of range

swetha i just have to spk to my dad about it

Susan Shwetha , I hope that you join too. It will be a GREAT learning experience.

swetha ok

swetha i will be in touch with them so that i can be a part of it

Imran S Ok he is from Gujarat

Imran S sure swetha, keep those numbers with u safely

swetha ok

Imran S See this is office number of head quaters of sanctuary 08739 246264

 swetha thank you very much for your help

Susan Imran, you have made the census process pretty clear. Thanks for that. I will go through the site you recommended too.

Imran S Arey I am glad to know we have people like u in Hyderabad

swetha thank you hope i know you

swetha i mran did you ever work with any of the society in Hyderabad

Susan We have had a long chat today. Are you guys ready to call it a day?

swetha do we need to end the chat?

Imran S Yes i worked with BSAP< WWF< HYTICOS, Nallamalai foundation

Susan Shwetha, I am afraid so. there are capacity restrictions on the site.

 Imran S Ok swetha do mail me at imran_Siddiqui@rediffmail.com,

swetha ok

Imran S or add me on Yahoo chat at imuu@yahoo.com

swetha if you dont mind can you tell me the society

Imran S Anyways contact ritu now at 9848989989 or Akhil 988598980

Susan Imran, thank you very much. After the census is over may be we can have another chat on the same topic.

Imran S definitely we shud have more chats

swetha ok

Imran S not just on census but also into action of conservation