Poonam Avlokan | Current Affairs
Recently, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi shared the news of the increase in the number of Asiatic lions in Gujarat through Twitter and credited the community support for this success. Apart from this, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar commented on this and described this good news as a success of conservation.
Increasing the number of tigers is a good thing, but this time the technique of "Poonam Avlokan" was very much discussed in counting the number of tigers.
History
The tiger was first counted in Gujarat by the Nawab of Junagadh in 1936. Later, since 1965, the Forest Department has been continuously calculating at intervals of every 5 years, but in this counting process, the census in the sixth, seventh and eleventh was stopped for some time due to different reasons. In order to spread awareness regarding the conservation of tigers, International Tiger Day is celebrated on 29 July every year. Government of India has taken several steps to conserve tigers. In the year 1973, the government started the "Project Tiger" scheme. So far, the government has built 50 tiger reserves under this project. Overall, the increase in tiger numbers is a relief news but the threat is not yet over. This time tigers were not counted in the traditional way, but for this, the method of "Poonam Avlokan" was adopted.
What is "Poonam Avlokan"?
Poonam Avlokan is a way of counting tigers. In it, tigers are observed on the full moon day and based on that, their numbers are estimated. Actually, tigers being held every 5 years were supposed to be counted in May, but this time it was postponed due to lockdown. But counting tigers was also necessary, so the government resorted to the "Poonam Avlokan" method.
On 5 and 6 June, the calculation of the possible number of lions was started. According to this calculation, where the number of Asiatic lions in Gir was 523 in May 2015, the number has now increased to 674, this time the number of tigers has increased by about 29%. However, many lions also died in the meantime. According to officials, in the last 3 months, more than two dozen lions have died in the region due to Kilni disease i.e. "Babiesiosis". And even earlier in 2018, due to the Canine Distemper Virus, about 40 lions were killed. During the year 2010-15, its number had increased by 27%. According to official information, there are 161 males, 260 females, 116 adult cubs and 137 cubs among the lions. Apart from this, there has also been an increase of 36% in the areas of lions.
Comments