TRICHY: The forest department has found seven additional species in the Trichy forest division during its annual wildlife census, taking the total number of wildlife species in the division to 12.
The census was carried out in four ranges- Trichy forest, Manapparai, Thuvarankurichi and Thuraiyur- spread over 45,272 hectares. The district forest department and the Bio-diversity Conservation Foundation came together to carry out the survey that lasted for more than a week.
Environmentalists cited the unexpected rainfall as the reason for the increase in number of species.
During the previous year, just 147 bonnet monkeys and 20 Indian Gaurs were spotted, said a forest official, while the number of hares, spotted deer and wild boars were 26, 41 and 33 respectively. This year, an additional seven species were recorded- red jungle fowl, Asiatic wildcat, loris, Bengal fox, Indian palm squirrel, Indian palm squirrel, Indian grey mongoose and porcupine. Dr Kumaraguru A, forest conservation scientist and a key member of the Project Tiger campaign of the Central government, said, "The census was carried out using one of the most widely accepted methodologies, called direct sighting, for which the line transect method was followed."
Officials and volunteers walked deep into the forest from 6am to 6pm every day to collect details and enumerate the species. Volunteers from colleges were trained on the use of technology such as compasses, GPS systems, cameras and other tools that were used during the census.
Mr Kumaraguru and his team of 50 members carried out the groundwork for the survey with the help of forest officials for three days. The members then split themselves into 42 teams for carrying out the week-long survey. Each team was assigned the task of covering a 2km stretch, which was decided based on the concentration of pug marks. According to a senior forest official attached to the Trichy divisional office, "During the preliminary work, the volunteers were trained on the encounter method, which includes recording the number of direct sightings."
Forest officials said the animals that were sighted during the census would be recorded as the official number. Forest rangers in the district said the numbers had risen up in the year because there had been no instances of drought, famine or forest fire. No poaching cases had been recorded in the division, except for minor incidents, they added.
