Odisha government will hold tiger and elephant census to ascertain the exact number of tigers and jumbos in the State.
While the tiger census exercise will begin in October this year and will continue for one and a half months, the elephant census will be conducted in May next year.
Sources said the forest department will adopt two methods for the tiger census; one is the line-transact and the other one is the camera trap.
As per the last Central census statistics, the number of tigers in the country has increased to 3,167 in 2022 from 2,967 in 2018.
In 2006, there were 1,411 tigers in the country; 1,706 tigers as per 2010 census and 2,226 big cats as per 2014 census.
As far as Odisha is concerned, Odisha had 45 tigers in 2006. The number came down to 32 in 2010. The number further came down to 28 in 2018.
However, the State government has a different number to tell. As per the Odisha government census, there were 40 tigers in the State in 2016.
Environmentalists and animal lovers in the State have expressed their concern over the dwindling number of big cats in the tiger reserve.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has announced Similipal as the best place for tiger breeding in the country. NTCA is spending Rs 12-13 crore every year for the protection of the big cats in the tiger reserve.