DigiTigerisation: Tiger census to be done with mobile app

Ranchi, January 2: PM Modi’s vision to create a digital India is getting molded in mostly each sector whether economy, banking or money transfer, Railway ticket booking etc. likewise even animals will get digital as The upcoming tiger census is all set to go hi-tech in Jharkhand with the state’s forest department deciding to use an Android-based mobile application for the count at the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).

Earlier, the field data used to be collected manually. The digitization is expected to make data analysis faster and error free.

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) developed the mobile app-- Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-STrIPES). It will be used for the first time in tiger census.

Tiger estimation procedure that began from December 2017 with training of trainers will continue till December 2018 and tiger count on field is likely to take off from March 2018, forest officials said.

“We have planned to cover entire reserve area this time. For this, we will install 600 cameras. We have 300 cameras while remaining 300 cameras will be procured soon,” PTR field director MP Singh said.