Place: Mumbai
Agency: dna
"The e-surveillance will help us track poachers and
ensure that guards take their rounds. This will check hunting and
eventually increase the number of wild animals," Maharashtra finance
minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who is also the forest minister, told dna.
Getty Images The pilot project, which will help track tiger movements, nab poachers, illicit tree-fellers and grazers, will be modelled on lines of a similar initiative at the Corbett National Park in Uttar Pradesh.
The Tadoba reserve in Chandrapur district in Vidarbha has the highest number of tigers in the state. It has 72 tigers – 60 in the core area and 12 in the buffer zone. It also has 29 cubs. The overall tiger population in Maharashtra is 190. India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010.
"The e-surveillance will help us track poachers and ensure that guards take their rounds. This will check hunting and eventually increase the number of wild animals," Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who is also the forest minister, told dna.
What the state is planning is to mount high-resolution thermal cameras, which can be swivelled 360 degrees, on high masts at sensitive points. There will also be night vision cameras and the feed will be monitored remotely from a control room.
In the Corbett national park's Kalagarh range, a pilot project named E-eye (electronic eye) had seen high-resolution thermal and infrared cameras being mounted on towers across the park. These cameras can capture images of objects weighing over 20 kg and generate alerts, which are sent to the park's control room and the National Tiger Conservation Authority office in Delhi.
In Tadoba, there is an alarm to warn the locals if animals are seen straying into neighbouring villages.
A senior forest department official said that the cost of the project is still being worked out. If the project turns out to be successful, we will extend it to other national parks and tiger reserves, he said.
The Tadoba reserve is spread over 625.82 square km and covers 89 villages, according to a local forest official. It also has bears, various deer species, crocodiles, birds and butterflies.
"It is difficult to monitor movements in the park with just 59 chowkies. This technology will come in handy," he said.
The state government also plans to develop the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Nagpur's Gorewada Zoo on lines of international forest tourism destinations like Kenya's Masai Mara.
Maharashtra has six tiger reserves – Tadoba, Melghat, Pench, Nagzira, Sahyadri and Bor.
The state has also deployed a special tiger protection force in the Tadoba tiger project. Maharashtra saw illicit tree-felling worth Rs 10.62 crore in 2011, Rs 8.14 crore in 2012, Rs 7.86 crore in 2013 and 2014 saw trees valued at Rs 2.64 crore being cut.
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