PANAJI
The country’s most extensive and advanced wildlife census 2026 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) will kick off in Goa from next month.
The Census that will be carried out in three phases -- on ground-tracking and habitat mapping, satellite integration and remote sensing and camera trap method -- will conclude in June, next year.
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) are all set to conduct the sixth cycle of AITE, probably from April-May 2026. The AITE began in 2006 and since then, five cycles have been completed (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022). The State has participated in all the five cycles so far and as per the 2022 tiger census, Goa has got five tigers.
As per the schedule released for conduct of the census for Goa, the phase I -- where the officers and volunteers will record indirect signs of tigers like pugmarks, claw marks, scat and prey remains apart from vegetation density and signs of human presence -- will be held from December to February 2026 while the data has to be submitted from March to May in total six rounds.
The second phase ‘Satellite Integration and Remote Sensing’ will see use of remote sensing to study forest cover, terrain, water sources and human encroachment, identifying critical habitats, wildlife corridors, satellite-aided mapping guides, etc.
The final phase of the census -- ‘Camera Traps and AI-Based Identification’-- will be held simultaneously from December to May, 2026. During this phase, WII will place cameras near trails, ridgelines, or waterholes identified during ground surveys. The cameras will remain active for 25 days, capturing images of wildlife movements and images are analysed using software that recognises unique stripe patterns, identifying each tiger individually.
A senior officer said that in the ongoing months, the officers and volunteers would be trained by the Master Trainers/biologists nominated by WII and NTCA.
The State forest department’s earlier participation in the AITE in 2002 and 2006, failed to get any results but the 2010 census saw the presence of five tigers in Goa’s wild, with an increase in the number of leopards and wild dogs, the number that remained constant in 2014-one male, two females and two cubs. The numbers dropped to three during the 2018 census and also hinted that the animal is a possible transit animal from Karnataka.
