GUWAHATI: The counting work of the first-ever Leopard Census was launched in the Sila Range location of Assam's Kamrup district. There will be gradual progress in the census work in the coming days said the officials.
The first Leopard Census is being taken up in the North Kamrup forest division on Friday. The state of Assam will carry out the leopard census following different phases.
On Saturday 5 February, the North Kamrup Forest Division through a series of tweets informed that the area for leopard census has been divided into 2X2 sq kilometer grids and there will be cameras installed in each of the grids.
In one of the tweets the district forest division stated that the census area is marked based on the earlier records and on the basis of current details and in one of the leopard-prone areas a test camera trap has been placed.
The forest division took to Twitter to inform that the census activities in the Sila range area of Kamrup have already started which will be gradually taken up in different parts of the forest area.
The first of its kind leopard census has been launched by the North Kamrup Forest Division in the forest and non-forest location of Assam which started from the Amingaon region of the state on 31st January 2022.
The counting work will be completed following a camera trapping process and a total of 5p cameras will be installed in the surrounding areas o Amingaon that includes Sila Reserve forest, NIPER, Changsari and AIIMS.
The Divisional Forest Officer Sunnydeo Choudhary informed that the camera trapping process will be completed within a month as it will take a period of 24 days. The information collected from the installed cameras in the areas will be later extracted in an interval of every seven days or a week said the divisional officer.
For conducting the proposed census, the North Kamrup Forest Division has planned for a one-week execution program which will include major works like the study of maps, detailed discussion with senior forest officials, verifying camera traps, target location selection, plans for volunteer participation and field survey.
The forest officials will be discussing different aspects of the camera trapping mission with stakeholders during the 7-day long program session. From 7 February 2022, the camera trapping will be commenced.
Choudhary said that there is a decline in the habitat of leopards due to the grot in urban built-up in North Guwahati and for the habitations in near proximity to the forest.
He further added that the trapped cameras will help in collecting the in-depth information and will form a baseline population data of leopards. It will protect the species by helping officials in reducing the man-animal conflict.
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