MYSURU: Amid a surge in tourist inflow and viral videos showing visitors taking selfies with elephants and other wild animals, the Forest department has decided to install CCTV cameras along a 20 km stretch inside Bandipur National Park.
The move comes after a youth, who had a narrow escape from a wild elephant while attempting a selfie, went missing on Sunday following the incident. Forest officials had difficulty tracing him to impose a fine.
According to sources, the cameras will not only track vehicular movements but also help penalise those stopping vehicles inside the forest, feeding animals, or taking selfies in violation of regulations. The department aims to keep a close watch on vehicles, tourists, and wildlife movement along the highway connecting Bandipur and Tamil Nadu.
A team of engineers has already surveyed the stretch and is identifying locations with the highest wildlife movement for camera installation. The cameras, powered by solar panels, will enable forest staff to monitor vehicle movement in real time, alert patrolling teams to illegal parking, identify vehicles involved in hit-and-run incidents, and respond quickly to disperse wild animals that block traffic.
Forest officials noted that the Kerala government has installed similar solar-powered CCTV systems in the forested stretch along the Karnataka–Kerala border to monitor traffic violations. However, despite such measures, some visitors continue to risk approaching wild animals along the 22-km forest zone from Moolehole to Maddur in Bandipur.