Monitoring patrolling in State forests is set to get a digital touch as authorities push for adopting a new e-Patrolling software, designed to track daily field movements of frontline staff in a bid to strengthen surveillance and protection.
The system, developed by the State Forest Department, will not only provide patrol routes, timings, and coverage by the field staff in real time but also present a clearer picture to the senior staff of ground readiness and help identify gaps in the forest protection exercise.
Eshwar B. Khandre, Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment, directed officials in all forest circles to adopt the newly developed software and closely monitor daily patrol rounds and strengthen frontline surveillance. This is essential to reduce human–wildlife conflict, which is on the increase, he added as he chaired a review meeting with officials of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar forest circles at Kollegal on December 3.
He said effective patrolling was the first line of defence in conflict mitigation and instructed officials to provide feedback so that the software could be further tweaked and improved. ‘’This can be refined and integrated with systems like M-STRiPES, which is already being used in tiger reserves,’’ said Mr. Khandre.
Underlining the imperative of co-existence, the Minister said wildlife population has been increasing but the forest area remained the same and hence, the conflict has been rising in recent days. Citing the example of Bandipur, Mr. Khandre said that the tiger population exceeded the carrying capacity of the forest and hence, real-time monitoring and quick field response were imperative to reduce conflicts.
Quoting experts, the Minister said a male tiger requires at least 14 sq. km of territory, while a female needs 8–10 sq. km. ‘’By one estimate, Bandipur has 190 tigers within 950 sq. km of forest, which means the tiger density has exceeded ideal levels and the carrying capacity of the forest,’’ he added.
Mr. Khandre directed that temporary patrol camps be set up every five kilometres in villages, and that vehicles and staff remain in a state of readiness to rush to areas where wildlife is sighted near habitations. He also urged senior officials to visit and stay in high-conflict villages to understand local issues and conceive solutions.
The Minister emphasised the importance of community engagement through outreach activities and mooted the idea of roping in officials with excellence communication skills and NGOs for interaction with the local community affected by conflicts.
Allocating one-third of funds of tiger foundations to villages on forest fringes and carrying out mock drills to teach children on how best to respond in case they encounter wildlife were other suggestions. A.R. Krishnamurthy, MLA, Manjunath, MLA, and senior forest department officials were present.
