INDORE: Forest officials at Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh will soon get eyes in the sky to track the movement of 20 odd tigers in the park area and to keep them off poachers. In a bid to strengthen tiger conservation in the national park, drones--unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will be deployed for surveillance. A proposal to use drones in the park is learnt to have been cleared by the ministry of defence.
Thus, Panna would be the second national park in the country besides, Kaziranga to use drones for aerial surveillance.
Panna National Park lost the entire tiger population to poachers in 2009 putting a big question mark on the state's big cat conservation efforts. Tigers were reintroduced in the national park last year.
Deputy inspector general of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), S P Yadav said necessary approval for use of drones at Panna has been obtained. He was in the city here on Wednesday to participate in a workshop on Wildlife Conservation organised by Police Radio Training School (PRTS) Indore in association with WWF India. The drones will be equipped with cameras which would be monitored by the field staff of the park. The total area of the reserve is 542-square km.
Field director of Panna National Park, R S Murthy said UAVs are expected to be press into service for aerial surveillance from March 2014 on experimental basis. Initially one UAV will be deployed and depending upon the result and utility the numbers would be increased. "Advance information and effective patrolling is very useful to prevent poaching," he said adding that the park successfully managed to keep its tigers safe and in last few years 38 attempts of poaching have been foiled.
Of late World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been turning to UAVs in a bid to tackle poaching of rhinos, elephants, and tigers carried out by increasingly sophisticated and well-equipped cartels.
