A file picture of a drone being used in a wildlife census exercise at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam.

IANS/Kolkata

In what could be a major boost to technologically-empowered wildlife surveillance and research in India, plans are underway to introduce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - or drones - in 10 biodiversity-rich sites across India by January 2015.

Following successful pilot runs in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) earlier this year, the use of drones has brought into the spotlight the importance of technology in wildlife management and conservation.

These low-cost, hand-launched machines, capable of autopilot missions can record images and videos and transmit them on a real-time basis.

In addition, they can be equipped with night-vision cameras for surveillance in the dark in remote areas. Besides watching out for tigers and other animals, drones can aid in keeping tabs on poachers and also support census activities.

“Currently the proposal is being developed to upscale it to 10 sites. We are aiming for a five-year project. If we get the required approvals, we could start in January 2015. This will add to the existing infrastructure in wildlife research and management as well as surveillance,” K Ramesh, UAV programme co-ordinator of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun said.

The PTR initiative, organised by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), was a collaborative venture between WII, US-based Conservation Drones and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International.

It was approved by the defence ministry, after which it was kicked off in January. Similar permits would be necessary for the scale-up as well.

Ramesh said India must apply such multi-faceted approaches to wildlife, seeing that such measures are being used to keep an eye out on critically endangered animal species and human activities in countries like Nepal and Indonesia.

“Given India’s vast biodiversity and the issues plaguing wildlife, aerial surveillance is of urgent need. We are including 10 sites, corresponding to each of the bio-geographic zones of the country in the plan. These include the Sunderbans, the Himalayas, the Western Ghats and other landscapes.”