Famed tiger reserve of Palamu has launched scat collection drive and has trained and selected few villagers for this job. The collect scat is first deposited with the PTR ground staff and with silica gel the samples are dispatched to Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun for further study. Moreover the exercise is not remotely linked to Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan and making the villagers earn in the process.
Sources said if the scat is identified as of tiger its collector is given Rs 1,000. Field Director PTR A S Rawat said that selected few have been trained for this job. “Here is one problem. Majority of scat so collected turn out to be of leopard. leopard scat is cash less job. A tiger’s scat has the cash tag,” said the official.
On being asked as to what prompted him to rope in villagers for scat collection Rawat said, “It was not possible to do the job with just ten forest guards as the habitat is spread in 1,026 square kilometers. Roping in villagers by PTR is a very thoughtful move as it connects PTR to commoners,” he said.
The remuneration is paid once the Wild life Institute Dehradun confirms that the dropping is of the big cat. However the lone tiger Betla has last seen in the third week of October last year and thereafter there is neither any scat nor any prey of it. Rawat conceded, “This is true. Betla tiger has not spotted since last October.”