Forest officials from neighbouring countries, India and Nepal have begun a joint census for the Royal tigers in the region.

This is the first time that the officials from the two countries will be working on a joint census of tigers. The census will be carried out in a series of wildlife preserves and forests located along the Terai Arc region, which is shared between the two countries. The officials have said that the objective of the survey us to determine the exact number of Royal Bengal tigers residing in the area.

The officials will also record other factors like availability of prey in order to help conservation efforts for the tigers in the Terai Arc, which is spread 950km across the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and in southern parts of Nepal. The officials will install hundreds of camera traps along the wild paths frequented by the tigers to count the number of tigers.

According to estimates, about 500 tigers are present in the region at present, which makes it one of the most dense concentrations of tigers as per the World Wide Fund for Nature. WWF is also involved in the survey mission that is being carried out by the governments of India and Nepal.