Mysuru, Oct. 19 (MTY&VNS)- With Tiger Census all set to commence during January next year, a two-day training programme was held for Forest staff at Forest Training Centre in Yelwal. A total of 112 Forest staff members underwent training.

Speaking on the occasion, Tiger Census State Nodal Officer and Project Tiger Director Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar mentioned that at present, Karnataka stood second in tiger population and cautioned the Forest staff to ensure the tiger census was done without lapses.

Adding that conducting the census with M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers — Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) was of more importance than using the camera traps, Ramesh Kumar urged the Forest officials to document every minute detail.

“Camera traps will not capture images of all tigers for which details of all carnivores & herbivores animals should be recorded using M-STrIPES,” he said and advised the staff members to concentrate on line trajectory to come out with accurate census report.

Presiding over the event, Conservator of Forests (Mysuru Circle) Dr. S.S. Ravishankar stated that Karnataka had to get to the top in tiger population but missed the chance last year owing to lapses in recording the numbers.

DCFs K. Paramesh, D. Raghu, Shankaregowda and Mohd. Fayazuddin, ACF Ravindra, Naveen Kumar, Mahadevaswamy, Mohan Bidari and Sumithra, Forest staff from Mysuru Region, Hunsur & Mandya Wildlife Division and Tiger Cell staff were present.