E-surveillance system to protect Tigers and Rhinos of Kaziranga

The Minister for Environment and Forests, Jayanthi Natarajan during his visit to the Kaziranga National Park on 10 October 2012 announced that for round-the-clock surveillance of the animals, the park will get remote controlled aircraft along with a satellite based electronic eye. The announced solutions for surveillance would help in protecting the tigers, rhinos and other animals from the attack of the poachers. The minister in her visit also announced a package of 1 crore rupees for repairing works of the park damaged due to flood.

The initiative in form of remote controlled aircraft surveillance of the National Park is the first step in the country. The electronic eye surveillance was in practice at Corbett National Park as a pilot project and Kaziranga would be the second park in the county to have the facility. The two things, surveillance through an electronic eye and the unmanned aircraft, were the two proposed procurement materials in the Annual Plan of Operations of Kaziranga for 2012-13.

The complete 856 square kilometer area of the National Park will be covered by the electronic eye and the infrared and the night vision cameras would be mounted on the towers. The images taken by the cameras would be transferred to the control room via satellite-based application. Alerts will be generated at times of suspicious movements within the park.

All these actions have been taken in form of an action plan to protect the animals of the National park from poachers and other problems that risks their life. Since January 2012, 11 rhinos were killed by the dehorned by the poachers. 29 of them, died after being drowned in the high waves of flood within the park.