Waterhole census concludes in PTR

Daltonganj: State’s lone tiger abode Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) wrapped up its week-long waterhole census in its north division on Sunday. The report, however, is still to be compiled and will take time, officials said on Monday.
Since the inception of the reserve forest in 1974, such large-scale census was done for the first time, officials claimed.
Talking to TOI, deputy director (north) PTR P K Jena said, “We have counted 100 waterholes using our trackers and daily wagers. The purpose of the exercise is to find out their usability by wildlife, kind of animals that are using them and health of waterholes to plan for corrective steps.”
PTR personnel spent day and night for the exercise in shifts to undertake the census from watch towers and at times on the ground in camouflage.
“Every species of wildlife from porcupine to hyena, deer to gour, big cat and birds have been spotted at the waterholes,” he said, highlighting, however, that the many waterholes are under stress due to human and cattle population present inside PTR.
The Betla National Park, part of PTR, alone has eight villages with each household having one or two cattle, who graze inside the forest areas.