Elephant counting to be started in a couple of days in tiger reserve Palamu. Officials said elephant counting personnel are in a party of four like the polling party and are not to return to headquarters but to spend their days and nights in the range office.
Chief conservator of forest cum field director PTR MP Singh told The Pioneer on Saturday that disposing their duty is mandatory for the personnel. “like all assembly or general election where comes the poll observers to oversee the election works here too. There will be a team of three scientists from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to see whether the counting of elephants is being done in accordance with the protocol set.”
Field director further said the whole of PTR has been distributed under 272 blocks each having a radius of 5 kms. “We are to leave those blocks in PTR where over the last 5 years no elephant has been sighted. In 198 blocks there will be elephant counting which will be direct, indirect and with cow dung method.”
The census is scheduled start on May 9 which will conclude on May 12 and the mission is to reach or find each and every elephant present in this PTR. Elephants will be photographed and marked as adult, sub adult, juvenile and calves.
This count of jumbo is in continuation of all India synchronised elephant population estimation and since Jharkhand’s elephants are lodged in East Central region its immediate elephant territory is northern region which is UP.