Data to be compiled within a week Udhagamandalam: A census operation to update data relating to the population of wild animals in the Nilgiris North and South divisions and Gudalur got underway here on Friday with a training session for volunteers organised by the Forest Department with the help of the Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association (NWLEA) and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The call for assistance to conduct the census evoked a good response with about 200 volunteers turning up from various parts of the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Puducherry and Chennai. Addressing the volunteers, including students of the Forest College, Mettupalayam, the District Forest Officer, the Nilgiris North, S. Ramasubramaniam, pointed out that such an all-animal synchronized census involving three divisions of the district was being conducted for the first time. Underscoring the role of census in highlighting the importance of various forest areas, he said that thanks to a recent census operation bringing to light the healthy population of tigers in the Sathyamangalam range, it was now heading for a tiger reserve status. Stating that the Nilgiris North division was home to a variety of wild animals, he urged the volunteers to ensure that details recorded by them were accurate. The District Forest Officer, the Nilgiris South, Anurag Misra, said that future programmes would be based on the data put together at the end of the census. Expressing the hope that the volunteers would be highly observant, he said that they should become