PANAJI
The much awaited three month wildlife census as part of the 2026 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) will be conducted in Goa from March.
Training for Goa’s forest staff is already completed by the experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the nodal body overseeing the AITE, sources informed.
The census will involve a three-stage methodology combining ground surveys, satellite technology and AI-enabled camera trapping. “The census will commence somewhere in mid-March and go on till May end,” sources said.
As per the schedule, during the phase I to be held in March- the field teams will document indirect tiger evidence such as pugmarks, claw and scratch marks, scat samples and prey remains. They will also map vegetation density and note human activity within forest areas.
Phase II involves Satellite Integration and Remote Sensing. This stage will utilise satellite data to analyse forest cover, terrain features, water sources and possible human encroachment. The information will help identify key habitats and wildlife corridors.
The Phase III- Camera Traps & AI-Based Identification, wherein WII will deploy camera traps at strategic points- including trails, ridgelines and water bodies- identified during ground surveys. Each camera unit will operate for 25 days to capture wildlife movement. Images will then be processed using software capable of recognising individual tigers through their unique stripe patterns.
The AITE, launched in 2006, has completed five cycles so far -2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 -with Goa participating in all of them. The most recent 2022 assessment recorded five tigers in the State.
