Drones to monitor wildlife movements in Wayanad

Trial conducted by National Programme on Micro Aerial Vehicles, Bengaluru

For forest conservation:Scientists from the National Programme on Micro Aerial Vehicles, Bengaluru, demonstrating the functioning of an unmanned aerial vehicle to officials of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.

Unmanned aerial vehicles or drones will soon be flying over the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) to monitor wildlife movements and prevent poaching.

Five drones, including three fixed-wing drones and two quadcopters, were used for pilot runs in the Muthanga forest range of the WWS. All the drones carried cameras and transmitters. Within minutes of the drones flying out, laptop screens lit up with scenes of the forest area kilometres away from where they took off.

Surveillance cameras attached to the drones transmitted colour videos while infrared cameras that can see living things through foliage at night beamed black and white videos.

“In the pilot run we learned that drone monitoring is very effective in observing wildlife movements, vegetation and terrain features of a forest. Besides watching out for tigers and other animals, drones can aid in keeping a tab on poachers and also support census activities,” said P. Dhaneshkumar, Wildlife Warden, WWS.

These low-cost hand-launched machines, capable of autopilot missions (through GPS), can record images and videos and transmit them on real-time basis, he added.

The Forest Department proposed to procure some drones for the purpose, Forest Department sources said.

The trial runs were conducted by a team of scientists from the National Programme on Micro Aerial Vehicles, Bengaluru.

It was V.I. Thajudin Ahamed, Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Government Engineering College, Wayanad, who brought the scientists to the sanctuary.