In its response to the Odisha Government’s objection over tiger census, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Friday said the figures published in the All India Tiger Estimation Report-2014 were correct.NTCA Member Secretary Rajesh Gopal said, “From the data we received during 400 trappings of tigers and the figure for Odisha is correct.”
In the final phase of enumeration process which ends on January 25, Gopal said, they have installed more cameras to find out whether there is any increase in the figure. “Though the counting process is still on, we believe the figure will be the same and it is less than the previous years,” Gopal asserted.
Notably, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in its tiger estimation report showed that Odisha has only 28 tigers in 2014 against 32 in 2010.After publication of the report, State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) SS Srivastav had sent a complaint letter to the NTCA and the MoEF that the tiger population in the State should be more than 28.
Meanwhile, a male leopard died after being hit by a train near Bhimkhoj, between the Hatibari and Jujomura Railway stations of Sambalpur district, on Friday. The accident took place at night.Forest official said that the train hit the leopard while it was crossing the railway track. “The patrolling squad informed about the incident,” said Divisional Forest Officer Santosh Joshi.
Joshi said the leopard would be below the age of five years. There were injury marks on the head of the leopard. The left paw was severed in the accident. The Forest Department has started an inquiry to find out the train, which hit the leopard. They also suspected that the leopard might have come from Redhakhol or Bamra forest division.