GUWAHATI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Assam will conduct a leopard census in the non-protected forest areas from Tuesday and the exercise will continue for the next six months.
North Kamrup Forest Division has taken the initiative and will cover an area of 100 sq km, which will include the leopard-dense areas such as Sila Reserve Forest Changsari, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education And Research (NIPER) campus and All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) campus in Amingaon in Kamrup district.
Divisional forest officer Sunnydeo Choudhary told TOI that the initiative has been taken after considering an increase in leopard encounters in and around the aforesaid areas. "It is the first such census outside the protected areas. Protected area means the national parks and wildlife areas. No census has taken place outside the protected areas in the state," he added.
He added that the counting would be done through the camera-trapping method. As many as 50 cameras would be installed in the identified areas for six months. "However, we will get a figure about the leopard population within two months. But we will keep the cameras installed for six months for a better monitoring. Data from each camera will be extracted every seven days. The census will help us get data on leopard population outside the protected areas," he added.
