They are the nation’s pride and now just like the billion plus citizens of India, Indian tigers will get a Unique Identification Number (UID) thanks to a national plan to strengthen their protection measures.
The National Tiger conservation Authority (NTCA) is all set to allot Unique Identification numbers to tigers living in the reserve forests of the country. As per the 2012 census, there are approximately 1706 tigers living in India at present. And in the first phase of the UID process, 650 tigers will get their Unique numbers.
No Tiger is the Same
Just like human finger prints, tigers too can be identified through their unique stripes on the body. But for a big cat that loves to hide behind tall grasses, it sometimes becomes difficult to correctly identify a tiger, in spite of the one-of –a-kind pattern on its body.
For the project, camera trap images will be used to first identify the tigers through their stripes, and then give each one of them a unique code number.
The UIDs for the tigers will have English alphabet codes that identify the zone (based on the six geographical zones of the country) as well as the tiger reserve they belong to.
“In India, there are six landscapes where tigers are found – Central India, Eastern Ghats, northeast hills and Brahmaputra flood plains, Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains, Sunderbans, and Western Ghats. The UID for a Sunderbans tiger will always start with a code, SU. These IDs will be assigned to landscapes and not to states since tigers often move across state boundaries,” said NTCA deputy inspector general S P Yadav.
The trap location will give the code of the site where a tiger originally belongs.For example, a tiger in the Bandipur National Park will have the code WG-BNP-1. While WG stands for Western Ghats (the geographical zone), BNP denotes the Bandipur National Park.
Also note, that the UIDs are being given to the tigers whose complete profile is present in the national database. This means a camera trap image that only captures a tiger’s face, tail, left side profile etc. will not be valid, unless, the tiger’s complete left and right side image is available to the data collectors.
How will the Cards help?
It will be much easier to track and note the life and movement of each tiger, once the cards are available.
The major benefits of the system will be correct identification of the tiger in case of,
- Natural Death
- Killing by poachers
- Migration from one habitat to the other
Some experts also believe that constant monitoring of tigers through the camera traps will also help in declaring new areas as tiger reserves where tiger density is found to be increasing. Also a 24 x 7 vigil will threaten poaching activities in all these reserve forests.
The Aadhar like Unique identification system for tiger of India will surely be a strong step in ensuring that each and every precious representative of this species is correctly identified and protected.
Do share your thoughts on this new initiative with us.
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Image via cc/Flickr by Keith Roper
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