Enhanced Vigilance in Kaziranga by High-Tech Drones

Kaziranga, Assam

News Update: 03-Sep-2018

One of the most famous National Parks in India for the spectacular wildlife safari, the Kaziranga National Park is getting ready for the high-tech surveillance of the forest to curb the poaching activity in the park. The Kaziranga National Park is most famous for being the largest natural habitat in the world for the one-horned rhinoceros. The park administration is all set to boost the safety and security of the park by using the high-tech drones for the vigilance of the forest which are difficult to access by the forest guards. The state-of-the-art drones will capture the video footages and pictures of the area which are not accessible on foot and are easy targets for the poachers.

The environment and forest minister of Assam, Parimal Suklabaidya told the correspondence of the Indian Express, “The products are expected to be received in around two months. These drones are expected to be able to fly for 4-5 hours and take high-quality footage. The new drones will overcome the time and maximum height limitation that the earlier ones had.” The government is also decided to divide the administration of the Kaziranga National Park and set up a new administrative division to make sure the proper management of the park. The division of the park leads to an increase in the number of forest officers and forest guards for the patrolling the forest area which will enhance the security and help to check the Rhino poaching.

The forest minister also said, “The new division will mean an increase in staff and vigilance in the area which will be very effective in preventing poaching and improving wildlife management. The notification is already out and the official inauguration will take place soon.” According to the forest minister, the bifurcated of KNP into the two divisions – one is the existing division, the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division, which incorporates the area of the Kaziranga National Park and the other is the new division named Biswanath Wildlife Division, which will manage the area of around 401 sq km of the reserve forest of Kaziranga.

However, this is not the first time the administration of Kaziranga attempted to use the drones for the surveillance. In the year 2013, a trial run for the drone had been done to ensure its success, but didn’t get the green signal from the Center. In the year 2017, the project of drone surveillance in Kaziranga gets the Center’s green signal for the aerial inspection and monitoring. As of now, the park has three drones among which one is with the forest officials and two with the police department of Kaziranga.

However, according to the forest officials, these drones are useful in some way but have the limitations as they can fly only for 25-30 minutes at a stretch and not customized for the wildlife monitoring. The principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) and head of forest force (HoFF) of Assam, N.K. Vasu said, “The new drones are being customized at the Wildlife Institute of India to best suit wildlife purposes. Work is being done to enhance the flight duration and longevity of usage. The technology is customized, the number of drones should not be a problem.”

According to the latest census, the Kaziranga National Park is the natural home to 2413 one-horned Rhinos. In this year till now, more than five Rhinos have been poached by the Rhino poachers. However, the number of poaching activities in Kaziranga has gone down since last two years due to the strict anti-poaching operations by the forest department of Kaziranga. Due to the anti-poaching crackdown, more than 15 poachers have been put behind the bars in the state and one poacher has been killed in a gunfight when he was fleeing away with the Rhino horn after killing it this year.”