24X7 live monitoring in Sariska Tiger Reserve with thermal cameras begins
Optical and thermal cameras are being placed at different surveillance towers of the Sariska tiger reserve. These cameras are equipped with night visions and body heat sensors. Thermal cameras will detect body heat around their coverage area.
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Representative image.
Jaipur: Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district of Rajasthan has started 24X7 live monitoring of tigers, wildlife species and hunters and other illegal practices such as grazing and tree cutting under the Wildlife Surveillance and Anti-Poaching System. This system will provide live streaming through several thermal cameras installed in the forest.
Optical and thermal cameras are equipped with night visions and body heat sensors. Thermal cameras will detect body heat in and around their coverage area and will alert a control room of a suspicious activity with green signals. The engineers in the control room will be able to zoom in the live pictures instantly after receiving these alerts.
The Wildlife Surveillance and Anti-poaching System has been rolled out in three tiger reserves and two leopard reserves for the first time in Rajasthan.
The administration has planned to place 16 cameras in the jungle at different places for live streaming. Six cameras have already been placed at surveillance towers. The officials said that the cameras are getting clear visuals of the forest in the 4-km of range around each one of them. Other cameras will be installed soon.
A control room has been set up at the Sariska headquarters for the Wildlife Surveillance and Anti-Poaching system. The Control room built near one of the towers at Sariska has two sections – one for data capturing and the other for live monitoring.
The details of the data will be forwarded to the forest department’s IT branch located in Jaipur.
Drone cameras are also being used to keep a tab on hunters and grazers. As soon as the activity will get detected by the camera, the drone will alert the operator in the control room. Once the message is received, the drone will be released to pursue poachers. The Sariska range office and Jaipur office will also get the message regarding the activity.
A private company installing these cameras and the system will be handed over to the Sariska administration after the installation is complete. Forest guards will be trained on how to monitor and operate these cameras.
