Maoist fear haunts forest staff on tiger census job in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR: Amidst lurking fear of Maoist terror, officials of the forest department in Orissa have already started fanning out into the dense jungles to undertake tiger head count from tomorrow, official sources said.
"Yes the fear of red rebels is very much in our mind. But our dedicated staff have taken it as a challenge," field director of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) H S Upadhyay said over phone today.
Upadhayay, who has been designated as the co-ordinator for the statewide tiger census, also admitted that the Maoist fear could adversly affect the exercise.
Stating that the forest officials in small groups would undertake the census by using pug mark method and camera trap technique in core and outer area of the STR for three days from tomorrow, Upadhyay said adding that they were hopeful of peaceful completion of the exercise.
Though a small group of jawans belonging to the state's elite anti-naxalite force, Special Operation Group (SOG), were deployed at Gugudia inside the Similipal National Park, they worked under the command of the police department and were not deployed for helping the tiger census, Upadhayay said.
"We have asked the concerned divisonal forest officers (DFOs) to take help of local police where required," said S S Srivastava, the Chief Conservator of Forest, (Wildlife).