Well, while accidentally glancing through the paper the other day; I came across this piece of information about tigers to have identity cards. At first glance I was curious to know what this is all about, actually I thought it to be the LTTE’s also known as the Tamil Tigers. But that isn’t something radical because the population of LTTE’s in Sri Lanka is very much compared to the actual population of the country. So, then they definitely need identity cards.
But when I ran through the first few lines I understood that it isn’t something to do with any extremist group rather it’s about wildlife. India is the place where one can find the Royal Bengal Tigers which are very famous all over the world. Tiger being the national animal of the country the Government would have thought that it’s high time they maintained a count of the number of Tigers that live in the country.
Earlier, forest and wildlife officials have been using physical count and pugmark verification to find out the number of Tigers in the wild. However, this technique was not considered reliable.
So, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) thought that it is better to rely on scientific survey, to determine the number of Tigers in the country. And hence, they would soon be issuing identity cards to all the Tigers and Tigresses of the country. So, what is this scientific method, the WII has proposed three new scientific techniques to have a more accurate count of the Tigers living in the wild. The three techniques are: computerized pugmarks, camera traps and finally DNA tests. The WII has planned to implement this methodology starting Jan 15th this year. Camera traps to shoot the Tigers would be set up at national parks and Tigers would be photographed throughout the year using laser technology. Scientists believe that such efforts would help in more accurate survey and would be an indicator for dead or missing Tigers. I am however skeptical about the whole issue, is it technically viable…? Is a question which time alone can answer...
But when I ran through the first few lines I understood that it isn’t something to do with any extremist group rather it’s about wildlife. India is the place where one can find the Royal Bengal Tigers which are very famous all over the world. Tiger being the national animal of the country the Government would have thought that it’s high time they maintained a count of the number of Tigers that live in the country.
Earlier, forest and wildlife officials have been using physical count and pugmark verification to find out the number of Tigers in the wild. However, this technique was not considered reliable.
So, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) thought that it is better to rely on scientific survey, to determine the number of Tigers in the country. And hence, they would soon be issuing identity cards to all the Tigers and Tigresses of the country. So, what is this scientific method, the WII has proposed three new scientific techniques to have a more accurate count of the Tigers living in the wild. The three techniques are: computerized pugmarks, camera traps and finally DNA tests. The WII has planned to implement this methodology starting Jan 15th this year. Camera traps to shoot the Tigers would be set up at national parks and Tigers would be photographed throughout the year using laser technology. Scientists believe that such efforts would help in more accurate survey and would be an indicator for dead or missing Tigers. I am however skeptical about the whole issue, is it technically viable…? Is a question which time alone can answer...
2 comments:
what about simple collar tagging the tigers? can then track where teh tiger is? and roaming patterns, habits, etc...like in most countries for other animals that need to be tracked?
hey selva,
as a matter of fact India is a developing country and they want to use IT in all fields so....
Post a Comment