Drones tested, Aravalli mapping to start soon
On Friday, the state forest department tested the functioning of both its drones and gave a demonstration to wildlife officials at the Butterfly Conservatory Park in Sector 52.
Haryana minister for forest and wildlife Rao Narbir Singh, who attended the test flight, directed the team to start the first phase of Aravalli forest mapping from next week.
“We have selected four villages—Raisina, Gairatpur Baas, Sakatpur and Rojka Gujjar near Bandhwari (Gurgaon-Faridabad Road)— where mapping would begin. In the last two years, most instances of wild animals strayUse ing into villages have been reported from here,” the minister said.
The drones will supplement the efforts of the watchers and forest guards, who walk miles through the Aravalli forest to check tree felling and poaching.
of drones in management and conservation of forest and wildlife areas is increasingly being adopted across the world as a cost-effective and efficient support tool for decision making supported by data.
The wildlife department purchased a basic drone and an industrial drone in March this year for GIS-based management and governance of the Aravalli forests. Each drone cost the department ₹20 lakh.
“One of the drones purchased is an integrated industrial drone while the other one is a basic DJI Phantom 4 drone. These will be deployed for use in high-resolution mapping and surveillance of the Aravallis to check poaching, crimes against wildlife and trespassing by land encroachers, etc,” said director of India operations at Anra Technologies Brij Mohan, who gave the demonstration.
“The interchangeable payload sensor in the industrial drone, which offers high resolution , multispectral and thermal images, will help in gathering data to gauge forest health, assess the extent of encroachments, presence of wildlife to prepare management plans and in developing decision support systems,” Vinod Kumar, additional principal chief conservator of forest, Gurugram, said.
However, the administration will have to be mindful of the prevalent laws while operating these drones.