Guwahati, Jan 18: The population of the vulnerable eastern swamp deer at Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has decreased marginally, the findings of the Eastern Swamp Deer Estimation-2022 revealed.
“In the total count method, 868 eastern swamp deer have been recorded which includes 173 male, 557 female and 138 yearlings. There is a slight decrease in population as compared to the 907 eastern swamp deer counted in 2018. This is mainly due to two high floods in the intervening period – 2019 and 2020,” an official statement issued here on Tuesday said.
Territory wise, 786 such deer have been recorded under Eastern Assam Division, 62 under Biswanath Wildlife Division and 20 deer were counted in the area under Nagaon Wildlife Division by wildlife experts.
“For the first time, eastern swamp deer have been counted in the whole of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on January 10 and 11, 2022. Before, the process was done in Kaziranga National Park only,” it stated.
In the process, 29 enumerators, 112 forest personnel were directly involved in the exercise. This was the 17th Eastern Swamp Deer count with the first dating back to the year 1966, when 213 such deer were recorded. The highest population of eastern swamp deer (1161) was recorded in the year 2011.
On the other hand, the fourth Wetland Bird Estimation 2021-2022 carried out from December 21 to 27, 2021, out encompassing the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve found a total of 66,776 birds of 126 species which were enumerated using point count method.
Out of this, 42,205 birds were counted in the Kaziranga National Park area while 24,571 birds were counted in Laokhowa and Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuaries.
Birds were counted in 211 different points in 157 waterbodies involving 35 enumeration teams including volunteers from local educational institutes, NGOs and along with officers and frontline staff of the forest department.
“Bar-headed Goose topped the list with 16,552 birds followed by Northern Pintail at 9,493, Common Teal at 5,631. Ferruginous Duck, an important species with a count of 2,236 , may be regarded as a highlight of this estimation,” the field director, Kaziranga Tiger Reserve, informed in the statement.