In a first, drone used to redirect jumbo herd
DEHRADUN: For the first time, the Uttarakhand forest department has used a drone with a flying range of up to 15 km to reroute elephant herd that had raided a sugarcane field in Tarai area of Udham Singh Nagar.
The department has procured eight high-tech drones recently with a flying range of 7 to 20 km which will be used for man-wildlife conflict mitigation, keeping a tab on encroachments in forests, poaching activities, movement of animals, counting of certain species, illegal mining, illicit felling of trees, monitoring of water holes and aerial patrolling in protected areas like Corbett and Rajaji National Park where the same becomes challenging during the monsoon period.
Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to have a have dedicated drone force-a fleet of nearly 10 high tech drones with a flying range from 7 to 20 km for surveillance and monitoring of the state’s wildlife, especially in the context of various threats to wildlife and the environment.
Parag Madhukar Dhakate, coordinator of the drone force and chief conservator of forests (CCF) western circle Kumaon, said for the first time, they used a drone to reroute an elephant herd that had ventured into agricultural fields in Shantipuri village of Udham Singh Nagar district in Tarai belt.
“When elephants raid sugarcane
When elephants raid sugarcane fields, it becomes difficult to track them as sugarcane is as high as the height of elephants PARAG MADHUKAR DHAKATE, chief conservator of forests, Kumaon
fields, it becomes difficult to track them as sugarcane is as high as the height of elephants. So we used a drone to track the movement of the elephant herd on Friday to reroute them ,” he said.
Dhakate said this is for the first time that a drone with a flying range of 15km has been used. “Once the drone is airborne, they get a live feed and geo-location of the elephants. This helps us in finding the exact location, numbers and movement of the elephants.”
Dhakate said these eight drones each one of which cost up to ₹2 lakh will be sent to each forest division of the state where they will be used for various purposes from man-wildlife conflict mitigation like in case of elephants, keeping a tab on encroachments in forests, poaching activities, movement of animals, illegal mining, illicit felling of trees and monitoring of water holes.
“We can fix the path of these drones which have range varying from 7 to 20 km and use them according to our requirements. We have also trained our ground staff to fly these drones from various forest divisions of the state,” he said.