Northern West Bengal Herbivore census exercise March 2020

Northern West Bengal Herbivore census exercise was conducted by the West Bengal Forest Department between March 12 & 14 2020, in conjunction with the Wildlife Institute of India.  In this major activity organized by the State Forest Department, many NGOs were invited to participate and extend cooperation to the forest officials. NEWS had also taken part in this exercise to help in the activity and experience the process of herbivore census in the Buxa region.

 

Before the process commenced all the team members were asked to report at the NIC WRVK camp at Rajabhatkhawa, where the teams were briefed about the overall exercise and the several steps that had to be followed. The field kits were provided to all the team members. Specific areas were then allocated to the teams.

 

Objective of the census:

 

Estimation of the herbivores in Northern West Bengal including the canopy coverage.

 

Methodology:

 

Each team had to walk on the transect line of 2000 meters. While walking through the transect line each team had to note down the sighting time, sighting distance of animals with GPS location and compass bearing data. While returning it was recommended to count the pellets and dung of herbivores within 20m/2m from the transect line in the six segments (for eg. 0-400, 400-800, etc.) and to measure canopy coverage, note down the names of trees, percentage of shrubs, weeds, herbs, grass and bare ground in the given data sheet.

 

Activities:

 

• At the start of each day each team went to the allocated range office from where each participant was sent with a specific team to conduct the census of a specific transect line.
• Each team had to reach the transect start point by 6.00 am with the technical kit provided.
• Each team had to walk on the transect line of 2000 meters. While walking through the transect line the teams had to note down the sighting time, sighting distance of animal appearance with GPS location and compass bearing data.
• The teams had to count herbivore pellets and dung within 20m/2m from the transect line in two segments (for eg. 0, 400; 800, 1200; 1600, 2000) each day and had to measure canopy coverage, note tree names and bare ground within 15m radius, shrubs, weeds in 5m radius and herbs, grass within 1m radius while returning from transect line.

 

A meeting was held each day with the Range officer after returning from the field to convey the difficulties, animal sightings during the day.