Coimbatore: To prevent human-animal conflicts, the Ministry of Forestry plans to spread drones for mapping the range of forests of Manombolly and Valparai in Animalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) immediately.
M G Ganesan, Deputy Director, ATR, said, “Elephants often come out of these two forest ranges and roam around tea plantations.
There was also an incident from them robbed rice allotment shops.
So, we have decided to map two forest ranges with the help of drones.
” He said the mapping of drones would cover the entire reserve forest, villages along the edge of the forest, tea plantations, staff quarter, swamps and the city of Valparai.
“The whole area will be captured with drones and regions will be mapped.
If the elephant is near the quarter tea plantation staff in Valparai, officials can check the map on their computer in their office and instruct the front-line staff to chase them to go in a certain direction.
” Ganesan says they have two drone cameras and two more will be employed for mapping work.
“It will take at least 30 days to complete the job.
After mapping is done, it will be easy to identify areas of two reserve forests.
This will help prevent future human conflicts.
” He said they had also formed the WhatsApp group 10 days ago to monitor elephant movements in two forest ranges in ATR in the Pollachi Forest Division.
“Department of Forest staff, tea plantation managers, the environment and various NGOs are part of the group intended to share details about the elephant movement.
There are other Whatsapp groups for the anti-depreciation squad, which will expel elephants into the backup forest based on certain inputs.
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