An app to get tiger count right

An app to get tiger count right

Context

• In the forthcoming All-India Tiger Estimation, the authorities have planned to eliminate the process of manual recording of signs of the carnivore and other habitat details. Field data collection for tiger listing is set to go digital in order to reduce human error and provide more reliable estimates.

M-STRiPES (Monitoring System for Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status)

• An app named M-STRiPES was developed by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
• Though the app has already been in place in some national parks, its usage and application has been made mandatory only now, for the fourth All-India Tiger Estimation.
• The use of the app would ensure a more robust estimate. With the availability of M-STRiPES, human error will be eliminated.
• It is a free app that will be made available to staff participating in the tiger census exercise, and they will feed in their observation during the carnivore sign survey and transect marking. Details such as pellet density, vegetation status and human disturbance, if any, will also be recorded.

Training for staff

• The field staff and senior officials of the Forest Department will be trained on how to use the app at a programme in Bandipur and Mudumalai from December 5 to 7.
• The key technical staff involved in operation of the software will undergo an advanced training course in Delhi in December.

Similar apps

• Bandipur had Hejje or Pugmark, an Android-based app, while BRT started with Huli.
• The GIS-based app will give real-time data on forest habitats besides providing live update of monitoring and patrolling activities.
• The nationwide introduction of M-STRiPES paves the way for greater standardization and elimination of inconsistencies in data interpretation.

Counted every four years

• The national tiger estimates are conducted once in four years, with the first conducted in 2006. That exercise pegged the tiger count at 1,411, with the statistical lower limit pegged at 1,165 and the upper limit, 1,657.
• The Western Ghat landscape, comprising Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa, accounted for 776 tigers in 2014, with the Bandipur-Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Wayanad complex harbouring 570 tigers — reckoned to be the world’s single largest tiger population in a landscape.
• The last nationwide assessment, held in 2014, pegged the tiger figures across the country at 2,226.