Gariaband. Varun Jain, Deputy Director of Udanti Sita Nadi Tiger Reserve Forest Gariaband, along with his IT team FMIS and Noida based startup company Kalpataru, has updated the Elephant Alert Tracker App based on the data received from the last 2 years. Based on this, villagers will be able to get very accurate information about the presence of elephants in their area. Apart from this, forest personnel within a radius of 1000 kilometers of Chhattisgarh state and the surrounding states will also be able to get near-rear information about the elephants’ movement apart from their location.
Deputy Director Varun Jain said that for the last 2 years, we have been studying the location of elephants as well as their movement patterns through the app. We have collected a lot of information in this. For example, if an elephant in a group is pregnant or an elephant is sick, then the group moves very slowly. Similarly, in the summer season, it moves around ponds and reservoirs. After all this study, we have now updated the app. If any elephant in the group is sick, then a separate health symbol will be visible on that elephant at the location.
Generate interesting data using the Elephant Alert App
Villagers of Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve will be able to get accurate elephant alert 2 days in advance. Due to the efforts of elephant trackers and Alert App, there has been no loss of life due to wildlife-human conflict in the Tiger Reserve in the last 16 months. The Forest Department has generated very interesting data by using ODK App for the last 2 years and Elephant Alert App for 1.5 years, through which information about the behavior and movement of elephants has been collected. Alert App is now being used in 12 forest divisions through this app.
Early warning alert system is being developed
Daily geo-tagged information of the movement of various elephant groups for the last two years, from which a map of their corridor has been prepared, the pattern of movement is being known. The places where elephants have moved in winter, summer and rainy season. GPS tagging of vegetation eaten by elephants in forest areas (which mainly includes bamboo, kareel, mahul bel, moyan bark, sal root, senduri root, chhind root etc.) and time spent in forests, GPS mapping of cases of crop loss, human loss and human injury in the last two years, GPS mapping of ponds, springs, rivers, drains and crevices which have been used by elephants.
Accurate forecasting of potential areas will be possible
This update has been named “Haathi-Bot” (on the lines of Hathi-bot robot). Till now, the alert app used AI to send automated mobile calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages to all the villagers present within a radius of 10 km from the elephant location. Now, if this new experiment is successful, more accurate information can be sent through the early warning system. This will enable the administration and the villagers to take appropriate steps and the situation of conflict will be reduced. With the help of the collected data, elephant habitats can be marked and ponds, plantations and pastures can be made.
This is how the new upgraded app will work
Through Hathi-Bot, one will be able to know the early warning alerts and the movement of the elephant herd. The registered forest staff of the bordering states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana will also be able to locate elephants within a radius of 1000 km. They will be able to see the near-real time location and corridor of their movement, which will strengthen inter-state coordination.
Varun Jain, Deputy Director of Sitanadi Tiger Reserve Forest Gariaband, said that through the new updated app, apart from forest personnel of Chhattisgarh and other states, local villagers will also be able to get the exact location of the elephant group two days in advance. There has been no loss of life through this app in the last 16 months, but now this app has been further updated on the basis of the behavior of elephants. Many more benefits will be available from this in the coming time.