PANAJI
Goa will undertake an extensive three month wildlife census as part of the 2026 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) from January to March, 2026.
The nationwide big cat assessment -- now in its sixth cycle -- will involve a three-stage methodology combining ground surveys, satellite technology and AI-enabled camera trapping.
Training for Goa’s forest staff is already underway, conducted by experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the nodal body overseeing the AITE. On Thursday, a session was held at Mollem, where officers and volunteers were trained by WII and NTCA-appointed Master Trainers and biologists.
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.
As per the schedule released for conduct of the census for Goa, during the phase I in January, 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.
Phase III will have Camera Traps & AI-Based Identification (January–March 2026). 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.
Goa’s earlier participation in the 2002 and 2006 tiger estimations yielded no confirmed results. The 2010 census, however, detected five tigers, along with increases in leopard and wild dog populations. Numbers remained steady in 2014 but dropped to three tigers in 2018 before rising again to five in 2022.
