A three day counting of elephants will start on June 1 in the Palamu Tiger Reserve, said sources. Sources said every June 1 elephants are counted all over the wild life reserve or sanctuary in the country. The counting place is the water bodies where elephants come twice a day to drink water. Elephants do not roam around in hot sun.
They go behind deep bushes in the day. Sources has said enough care and caution are exercised in the census of elephants. There is a strong possibility of counting one elephant twice said sources. To ward it off or to minimise this duplication in counting the PTR officials have devised a mechanism to go for counting of elephants in its buffer and core areas simultaneously.
DFO Buffer A K Mishra has confirmed the beginning of census of elephants from June 1. It is to end on June 3. Mishra said it is the water bodies which attract the elephants most in summer. When told that majority of water bodies are dry or have little water in PTR so will there be elephants around them Mishra said ' There is no other place for their counting except the water bodies'.
No counting of any wild life is done at night. The census of elephants will also make a study of the composition of the herd like number of baby elephants, their age, number of females, number of male and tuskers. The forest and environment department Jharkhand government gives a meagre 25,000 rupees for the census. Mishra said the buffer area is in receipt of this fund. A fleet of 64 personnel including Tiger Protection Force will be deployed for this count.