Similipal shut till April 30

Bhubaneswar: The Similipal National Park in Mayurbhanj district will remain closed for visitors from Sunday till April 30 for tiger census, official sources said. The census will take place in Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), a part of the park, said STR deputy director Ajit Satpathy. At present, around 100 people are visiting Similipal every day, but the number goes up multiple times in November, December, January and February, said Satpathy.
Official sources said tigers will be counted in STR by using both camera trap and pug mark methods.Around 500 camera traps will be used, added the sources.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which conducts the tiger census every four years, had reported the presence of 28 tigers in the state in 2014 based on photographs captured by camera traps. In 2010, their number was 32. The state government did not accept the NTCA's census figure and decided to conduct its own survey.
"The state government had spotted 101 tigers in its forests in 2004 census by using pug mark method. Since then, it has not taken up any enumeration of tigers. It is an in-house estimation of tiger population," said a senior wildlife officer.
This year, a tiger census was conducted across the state in the first week of February using the pug impression pad (PIP) method. However, the result of the census was not announced citing discrepancies, sources said.