Balangir: Tiger census has gone hi-tech at the Kushang wildlife sanctuary in Boudh district with the tiger survey being digitised.

At least 11 mobile apps and 35 digital tracking centres were used in the tiger census exercise that came to an end on Saturday.

Sources said the findings were sent to the divisional forest office in Nayagarh.

Sources said the tiger census was conducted in 11 beats of the wildlife range of Kushang in Boudh district. More than 70 forest officials were engaged for the survey work.

In each bit, 10 pug impression pads (PIP) were used and the survey was conducted in two transit lines. A six-member team was engaged in each bit.

Sources said every day from the morning, the team used to venture into the forest to track the presence of tigers and other wild animals in the beat. For the first time, mobile apps were used to conduct the survey.

Kushang wildlife ranger Dayanidhi Sethi said the pug marks of tigers, other carnivorous and herbivorous animals were examined by the mobile apps.

"The mobile has come handy this time to study the different pug marks. In the first three days of the nine days survey, we only concentrated on tigers. In the following six days, the survey was extended to all other wild animals. We used to send the reports to the DFO, Nayagarh, every day," he said.

Sethi said the central team at the wildlife sanctuary would examine the data to ascertain the presence of tiger in the sanctuary.

"The central team at the sanctuary will go through the PIPs and the findings in the mobile apps to make the final report on the presence of tigers and the numbers of other wild animals," he said.

The tiger survey was also carried out at the Puruna Katak range of Boudh district recently.