The Forest Department on Tuesday deployed 48 teams into the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve for undertaking tiger census in the seven ranges in Sathyamangalam and Hasanur divisions on an expanse of 1,400 square kilometres. Sixty three volunteers among the field staff were oriented on the methodology of enumerating the presence of tigers, co-predators and prey, and profiling vegetation during the eight-day exercise on Monday. Each team would be required to trek for 15km every day into the forest area to look for tiger signs such as pug marks and scat. Three days would be for the estimation of the number of tigers and co-predators and the remaining for determining the numbers of herbivores and flora variety, K. Rajkumar, District Forest Officer, Sathyamangalam and Deputy Director, STR, said. In the newly created Hasanur Division, 19 teams, each comprising six members, would be undertaking the census work in the three ranges. There were six teams for Hasanur range, five for Germalam, and eight for Talavadi range, District Forest Officer, Hasanur, and Deputy Director, STR, P. Pari said.