Pilibhit Tiger Census Begins With 402 Cameras
Forest officials in Uttar Pradesh have launched a massive tiger census across Pilibhit Tiger Reserve using 402 motion-sensor camera traps.
Deep inside the lush green forests of Uttar Pradesh, an exciting wildlife mission has just started! On 25 October 2024, forest officials launched the brand-new Pilibhit tiger census to count the majestic big cats roaming across Pilibhit Tiger Reserve.
To track the striped rulers of the jungle safely, rangers are turning to clever technology rather than walking into dangerous brush. A dedicated forest team has deployed hundreds of automatic cameras among the trees to snap clear pictures of every creature that passes by.
What happened?
This big wildlife survey is organized in two different phases to make sure experts survey every single corner of the forest. The first phase will run for approximately one month, focusing on the Mala, Mahof, and Deoria forest ranges.
To track the secretive big cats, officers set up 402 camera traps across 201 carefully selected locations. These smart cameras are mounted in facing pairs on trees along natural animal paths. Whenever an animal steps between the trees, motion sensors trigger both cameras to click photographs at the exact same moment.
How do biologists tell the cats apart? It turns out that every tiger has a completely unique pattern of dark stripes, similar to a human fingerprint! By carefully examining these stripe patterns, wildlife scientists can identify individual tigers without accidentally counting the same animal twice.
PTR Deputy Director Manish Singh confirmed that all necessary field deployments and preparations were completed before the launch. The sanctuary spans a huge area of 730.24 square kilometres, containing 602.79 square kilometres of core forest and 127.45 square kilometres of buffer zone. Located near the India-Nepal border across Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur districts, the reserve forms an important part of the Terai Arc Landscape along the Upper Gangetic Plains.
Pilibhit has already achieved wonderful conservation success. When it was declared a tiger reserve in June 2014, it had only 24 tigers. By 2022, its population grew to over 71 big cats, earning the reserve the famous international TX2 award. The forest also protects other wonderful species, including Indian leopards, swamp deer, hispid hares, and rare birds like the Bengal florican.
Why does it matter to you?
The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal, and counting them helps us see if our natural environments are flourishing. When top predators like tigers thrive, it proves that the forest trees, clean waterways, and plant-eating animals are in balance too.
Learning about this survey shows how modern technology and teamwork protect endangered wildlife without harming or scaring them. By keeping wild places safe, rangers help protect nature so future generations of children can grow up in a healthy, green country.
Words to know
- census: an official count or survey used to measure a whole population.
- camera trap: a special camera that takes a photograph automatically when it detects movement.
- buffer zone: a protective ring of land surrounding a core forest reserve.
- predator: an animal that hunts and feeds on other animals in the wild.
Did you know?
Just like no two people have the exact same fingerprints, no two tigers in the world share the same pattern of stripes!
Think about it
If you were an inventor working with forest rangers, what kind of nature-friendly gadget would you invent to watch over wild animals? Why is it important to protect big predators in a forest?
Quick quiz
How do scientists identify individual tigers from camera trap photographs?
- By checking the colour of their eyes
- By looking at their unique stripe patterns
- By measuring the length of their tails
See the answer
By looking at their unique stripe patterns
Sources
This story was prepared by the Kids Gazette news desk with the help of AI research and writing tools, using the sources listed above.
