NILGIRIS : Eight real-time surveillance cameras that were installed last year have been very helpful for Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) officials in monitoring the movement of elephants, tigers, etc. They have also helped in putting out forest fires at the earliest.
The actual purpose of these cameras installed in tiger habitats is to prevent poaching as well as human intervention. The cameras record the movement of elephants, tigers, vultures, sloth bears, etc during day and night. Interestingly, a baby elephant taking a nap near its mother for more than half hour near a water trough was recorded in one of the locations.
Speaking to TNIE, C Vidhya, deputy director of MTR, said, “We have set up real-time monitoring cameras using solar-energised radio frequency-based network systems. Out of the eight cameras, three are used for monitoring wildfire and five for monitoring wildlife. Our main hub is located at Glenmorgan at an elevation of 2041 MSL. Mudumalai Tiger Reserve core zone altitude is from 425msl to 1,065msl. Glenmorgan was chosen for its high altitude since the radio frequency received is up to 90 per cent in the core area and 30 per cent in the Buffer area.”
She added, “The Pan Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) camera 3,600 (2 Megapixel, 25x Optical Zoom, 150 Meter IR night vision) omnidirectional with manually and automatically operated fire monitoring facility can detect up to 9 km radius. Apart from MTR, we are monitoring the fire in Gudalur Forest Division as well as in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala and Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.”
“Using these fire monitoring cameras, so far MTR officials have detected two fire incidents in the adjoining Gudalur forest division. Our goal is to install a network-based weather monitoring system and MSTrIPES data transfer from APC,” Vidhya said. (MSTrIPES is Monitoring System for Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status.)