The new system of patrolling was introduced by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in a bid to strengthen patrolling and surveillance of the endangered tigers. Christened M-STrIPES, it is a software-based monitoring system for tigers wherein forest guards are equipped with personal digital assistants (PDAs) and geographical positioning system (GPS) devices to capture data regarding tiger sightings, wild life crimes, deaths and ecological monitors, etc., during patrolling.
“These devices will let the forest guards mark precisely where they had spotted tigers or other animals. The data will then be brought to the office of the field director and the spots will be marked on the map of the reserve through a special software devised by WII,” officials explained.
“The data will then be uplinked to a central server, which can be accessed and analysed by officials at site, state or central levels periodically. The software system would also map the patrol routes of forest guards and monitor distribution of different animal species. It will also enable us to keep track of those forest areas that have been monitored against those that haven’t been. Besides it will also help us detect vulnerable areas in the forest and detect poaching early,” he added.
Other tiger reserves where the system is being tried out are Corbett ( Uttarakhand), Kanha ( Madhya Pradesh), Bhadra (Karnataka), Anamalai (Tamil Nadu) and Nagarjunasagar (Andhra Pradesh).
