The Forest department would acquire five drones at a cost of Rs. 20 lakh after obtaining permission from the Ministry of Defence, Airports Authority of India and other departments concerned, Mr. Sreenivasan said in the House.

Besides, the policy note tabled by the Minister in the Assembly said surveillance of vulnerable areas and monitoring of wildlife habitats, mitigation measures to prevent human wildlife conflicts, GIS-enabled information and technology driven system for monitoring of wildlife habitats to reduce human wildlife conflicts are some of the policy initiatives that would be taken to address human wildlife conflicts and its mitigation.

The department would also set up automatic weather monitoring centres in all seven agro-climatic zones in the State at a cost of Rs. 2 lakh during 2016-17.

As part of the newly suggested grievance redressal camps to be organised once a month in areas adjoining forests, such camps would be organised in 372 human habitats in 83 villages in Tiruvannamalai district initially, the Minister said.

The Minister added that September 11 would be observed as the Forest Department’s Martyr’s Day every year to remember those who were killed while protecting forests or in forest fire or during anti-poaching activities.

However, it was not explained as to why the specific day was chosen.

Schemes to develop forest border areas would be implemented in the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts at a cost of Rs. 16.91 crore during 2016-17.