Sharks have a reputation of being apex predators of the sea. But even they have their weak points. Many shark populations have plummeted in the past three decades as a result of excessive harvesting — for their fins, as an incidental catch of fisheries targeting other species, and in recreational fisheries. This is particularly true for oceanic species. However, until now, a lack of data prevented scientists from properly quantifying the status of Pacific reef sharks at a large geographic scale.

Forestry authorities in Northwestern China's Gansu province said Monday that they have started the first wide-ranging census and DNA collection on endangered wild giant pandas.

Zoologists will comb forests in southern Gansu's city of Longnan and nine counties in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gannan to track individual wild pandas, said Ouyang Feng, who works with the giant panda protection office of the Gansu provincial forestry bureau.

Forest officers in the district are all set to participate in the three-day synchronised elephant census that will begin across six states on Tuesday.

Chamarajanagar district has the distinction of having the highest density of elephant population in the State. Bandipur National Park, Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger Reserve Forest, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Kollegal Forest Division are other important habitats for elephants in the State. More than 600 enumerators, including forest watchers, students of forestry colleges, volunteers and representatives of NGOs working in the field of wildlife will take part in the census in the district’s forest region.

Simultaneous enumeration in Karnataka, Kerala, T.N., A.P., Maharashtra and Goa

More than 100 volunteers will fan out across the Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks for the synchronised elephant census from Tuesday. The census will take place simultaneously in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, where the elephant habitat is contiguous. This will help avoid duplication of count.

Says State has no elephant population

PANJIM: As the Union Government is bracing up for three-day synchronized National Elephant Census in six States including Goa, the Forest Department has said that ‘State has no elephant population and the jumbos who come down here usually migrate from the neighbouring States.’ According to a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the six-State Census would begin from May 22 and will be later conducted throughout the country, the MoEF notification reads.

Transact method being adopted

With the recent wildlife census in the North Division of the Nilgiris Forest department having revealed that the population of most of the wild animals was healthy, a two-day census got under way in the South division on Monday.

Speaking to The Hindu, the District Forest Officer, Nilgiris South, Anurag Mishra said that it was being conducted by forest officials with the help of volunteers from the World Wide Fund (WWF) of India and the Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association (NWLEA).

A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.

The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.

The tigers are roaring in different parts of the state, their numbers being significantly up, according to preliminary reports from the ongoing census of the big cats. The reports, based on camera traps and pugmarks, are coming in from different tiger reserves, sanctuaries and national parks to the state’s wildlife wing. Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) alone has so far reported the presence of at least 78 tigers, including cubs. Wildlife officials at Atchampet division reported the presence of 17 tigers, a record of sorts.

Despite losing its prestigious ‘tiger State’ tag to Karnataka last year, Madhya Pradesh has failed to moot the much-needed Special Tiger Protection Force till date, overlooking the Centre’s special advisory about two years ago, this when the Centre is providing 100 per cent assistance for setting up the force.Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, PK Shukla told The Pioneer, “Correspondence with the Centre is on and matters would definitely move ahead once a consensus is arrived at.”

AJMER: Wildlife census in the district began on Sunday morning and teams of forest department went to about 150 water holes to identify animals in different regions. In the first six hours of the census, small animals including snakes and cobras were spotted, but no trace of panther is found in jungles. There is a possibility of panthers being in Jawaja, Pushkar and old Beawar forest regions. For the last four years, panthers have not been reported in the census, but there are reports of attacks by the beast in some regions.