Ahmedabad

The two-day wild ass census, covering more than 15,000 sq kilometre and initiated by the Gujarat Forest department in and around the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Little Rann of Kutchh ended today, official sources said.

The state forest officials had on Saturday embarked upon the task of finding out the exact number of wild asses in Gujarat.

As per the 2009 census, the wild ass population stands at 4,038.

According to officials, such a census is carried out in every five years to update records.

“The two-day census was started on Saturday and ended today. Around 1,200 forest department employees were involved in the task. We have covered an area of 15,000 square kilometres, spread accross eight districts, including Kutch, Surendranagar, Patan, and Ahmedabad,” Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) of Surendranagar division, Pradeep Singh said.

The wild ass sanctuary is situated in Little Rann of Kutch and spread across 4953.70 square kilometres. These wild animals are also found outside the sanctuary in significant numbers, officials said.

“They are now seen in significant numbers in other adjoining districts, such as Ahmedabad. Thus, we have covered such a large area to find out the exact numbers. We have also used GPS technology to track them. We are now compiling the data and a final census figure is expected to be out within a week,” Singh said.

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