At a time when continued human-simian conflict in Uttarakhand is resulting in considerable problems especially for farmers in rural mountainous regions, the State forest department expects to have data on the State’s monkey population by the end of January next year. This will be possible because of the wildlife population estimation exercise in the middle Himalaya region which started on Thursday. As the Meteorological department has forecast probability of rain or snow especially in comparatively higher altitude areas on Uttarakhand on Friday, the department will extend the estimation exercise by a day in case of rainfall during the survey.
Talking to The Pioneer, the chief conservator of forests (Wildlife) Dhananjai Mohan informed that the first stage of the wildlife population estimation exercise started with survey work on Thursday. The exercise will be carried out in about 25 forest divisions that are situated in the middle Himalaya region in addition to which some areas in the foothills will also be included. In the middle Himalaya region, the exercise will be focused on counting of varied wildlife especially leopards and monkeys whereas in the foothills region the focus will be on the simians only. He said, “This is the first phase of population estimation exercise and it would take us about two months to reach the third phase after compiling the data collected for analysis. However, we are doing a proper field exercise for estimation of the monkey population and after analysis, hope to have the results in hand by the end of January next year,” he said. The CCF also said that in case of rainfall/snowfall on Friday as forecast by the Meteorological department, the population estimation will be extended by a day and conclude on December 14.
It is worth mentioning here that though forests and wildlife are considered to be among the main assets of Uttarakhand, continued human-wildlife conflict continues to be a major problem detrimental to both the people and wildlife.
In order to generate reliable wildlife population data, the Forest department drafted the protocol for this population estimation exercise with the help of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
The traditional protocol for this exercise has been enhanced with technical aids like Global Positioning System (GPS) on the lines of the tiger population estimation exercise, making it the first such wildlife population estimation exercise to be conducted in the middle Himalaya region of Uttarakhand. The department would have a reliable idea of the population of wildlife especially those involved in conflict situations with humans. The estimation of the simian population will help the department plan measures accordingly to mitigate the conflict. The wildlife population estimation will also help in planning and implementing effective wildlife management.