On Vaishak Purnima night, a wildlife census was done at Desert National Park(DNP) in Jaisalmer-Barmer at 147 watering holes. The census continued for 24 hours. There are 53 water points are in DNP. Forest department officers believe that in scorching heat, all wildlife come to watering holes to drink water. Special machans have been made at these watering holes and 12 cameras have been set up at important water guzzles.

ACF Poonam Singh Rathore confirmed that in the new closure of Ramdevra, total 18 GIBs were seen. In Loharki closure, 4 GIBs were seen. In Sudasari closure, 12 male and 4 female GIBs were seen. In ChauhaniMyajlar area, 5 GIBs including 1 male and 4 female were seen.

Every year at DNP, a wildlife census is held during Vaishakh month on full moon night.

The census is done through waterhole method. This method is considered very accurate, as wildlife come to waterholes at least once a day to drink water and, thus, counting is done. 53 waterholes have been made at DNP for census. At each watering hole, a technical employee and a local rural enumerator is deployed who continuously count wildlife for 24 hours.

Total 147 waterholes have been identified of which 142 are in Jaisalmer and 5 are in Barmer, including 53 in DNP. Five watering holes are in Barmer forest range, 10 in Myazlar range, 17 in Pokhran range and 21 points in Jaisalmer range.

DNP ACF Bajrang Lal Yadav said the census was done for 24 hours and employees have marked the wildlife at the waterholes. Now, all data will be compiled and other wildlife at DNP will be counted.

During census, we encountered difficulties in some areas because of rain, as GIBs didn't came out, Yadav added.

It may be mentioned that during last wildlife census in 2016 on Vaisakh Purnima, 30 godawans were spotted.