Digital database to track tigers soon

The aim is to track tigers, monitor source population, movement patterns and also empower forest guards (who have so far recorded tiger movements in paper files) to make inputs into the centralised software.

Over the past two years, tigers have been fitted with different collars in a bid to understand their habitat better, most famously in the July-August translocation of a tiger pair from Ranthambore to Sariska, where the animals were fitted and tracked with a satellite collar.

However, there has been no software to collate or analyse the data centrally. Earlier, tiger numbers were estimated through pugmarks of different animals. However, in the latest tiger census released this year, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) used camera trapping to estimate tiger numbers.

The system will enable forest departments to create an identity sign of each tiger. “We want to enable even the forest guard to put in his data entry digitally as opposed to marking his entry and observations in a paper file. We will make a very simple, easy to use system which will refine all observation processes. This can be uploaded directly to a central database,” says Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary, NTCA.

“We will create a prescribed format where day-to-day monitoring can take place, which will also help in all-India tiger estimation. If I ask a forest guard where a tiger is, he should be able to tell me the movements of the animal. We will be able to thus create an identity sign for each tiger,” he says.

Currently, WII makes use of different types of collars on tigers to study them in different terrains. Currently, 10 tigers in Kanha, two in Sariska and one in the Sunderbans are fitted with satellite collars.

Tigers in Pench and Ranthambhore are fitted with Very High Frequency (VHF) radio collars, while two tigers in Ranthambore have GPS (Global Positioning System) collars.

The number is likely to increase, with NTCA roping in different NGOs to collar more tigers. More camera traps, depending on terrain, will be set up.

“We are increasingly making use of technology to help us understand tigers better. Through this kind of monitoring (through collars) we can ascertain how many litters a tigress can give, age-sex dispersal over landscapes. The move to create and collate nationalised systems of data will give us a much broader perspective,” says Qamar Qureshi, senior scientist from WII who has been involved in many tiger collaring projects.

The different collars

• Satellite collars: costs Rs 3 lakh each; fitted onto tigers over difficult terrain. To conserve battery, the signal and GPS positioning come on at specified time (when the satellite is within 500 km radius); can transmit data to the satellite directly

• GPS collars: costs around Rs 2 lakh each; transmits positioning (location) data to a receiver which will be around half-a-km away from the source

• VHF collars: costs around Rs 10,000 each; have been traditionally used. They work by giving radio signals