In a first, wildlife officials used mobile application M-STrIPES (Monitoring System For Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) to estimate the big cat population in the country, a WII scientist said on Monday soon after the release of the All India Tiger Estimate report.
YV Jhala, Scientist, Tiger Cell at Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an autonomous institution of the Environment Ministry, who also
contributed to the report, said M-STrIPES made it a lot easier for officials to collect and collate data digitally.
“This mobile app records the track a forest official walks and geotags the sightings of tigers and even other animals or signs which helps in
the estimation. It was easier this time but the data was huge,” Jhala said.
As per the four-yearly report, India had 2,967 tigers in 2018, an increase from 2,226 in 2014. According to the report, data was received from 491 forest divisions of India and it was processed using M-STrIPES software.