India’s tiger census of 2018 has set a Guinness record for being the world’s largest camera-trap wildlife survey.
The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018 counted 2,967 tigers, which is about 75% of the global tiger population.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted, “The All India Tiger Estimation is now in the Guinness World Records for being the largest camera trap wildlife survey, a great moment indeed and a shining example of Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
The Guinness World Records website said, “The fourth iteration of the survey — conducted in 2018-19 — was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed. Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by) were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 1,21,337 sq.km.”
“In total, the camera traps captured 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were that of tigers and 51,777 of leopards; the remainder were other native fauna). From these photographs, 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software.”
