The
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, is drawing up a plan to
introduce the unmanned aircraft for population estimation and tracking
the movement of the endangered mountain goats. The drones will be
equipped with high-resolution mapping cameras that can click pictures
for a pre-set period. The images can be stitched to obtain a picture
series of the animals, K. Ramesh, scientist at the institute, said.
This
will be the first time that the drones are engaged in the State for
conservation of wildlife. Researchers expect to fly the drones over the
park in three months.
The drones will be introduced
in 10 bio-geographic zones in the country, including the Sundarbans and
the Himalayas. Three of the four drones will be deployed in the Western
Ghats region. The population estimation of the tahr using conservation
drones will replace the more than a quarter-century-old ‘block count’
method.
The habitat of the animals is divided into 13
blocks, and the population is estimated based on direct sightings. In
this method, the same animals can be sighted by different groups leading
to duplication of data, P.O. Nameer, a wildlife expert, said.
Conservation drones would help in arriving at scientific population
figures for the animals, he said. The tahr population at Eravikulam is
estimated to be 870.
Mohan Alampat, former wildlife
warden of the park, said the present technique of the tahr count could
be affected by poor weather conditions that may hamper the visual search
of animals. Conservation drones would evolve as the preferred tool for
census in areas like Eravikulam in another five years.
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