Foresters Set Up 119 Anti-Poaching Camps To Protect Wild Animals in NSTR
As the foresters are taking the assistance of local tribal communities for continuous patrolling in their allotted areas by setting up anti-poaching camps, they are also sensitising these communities to give up the practice of arranging snares for wild animals for their meat.
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh’s forest officials have set up 119 anti-poaching camps -- each having four personnel-- in vulnerable areas to keep a close vigil on poaching of wild animals including tigers in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve.
This is in the aftermath of the death of four tigers --with one death in poaching, two deaths in a fight with a porcupine, another death in a fight with a dominant adult male tiger and one in a train accident.
The forest authorities rehashed the 87 existing anti-poaching camps by reducing the number of personnel to four from five and added 32 more. They plan to set up a total of 200 such camps with budgetary support covering the entire area of NSTR to curb poaching of wild animals.
Foresters are using drones in vulnerable areas at regular intervals to keep a tab on any attempt to kill wild animals and have enhanced the number of camera traps. They also reduced the frequency in collection of data from these as they are arranged deep inside the forest areas, so as to better monitor and check illegal activities.
They are planning to use AI for better monitoring of movement of wild animals.
As the foresters are taking the assistance of local tribal communities for continuous patrolling in their allotted areas by setting up anti-poaching camps, they are also sensitising these communities to give up the practice of arranging snares for wild animals for their meat.
As the NSTR has a good number of sambars and spotted deer and become vulnerable to getting trapped in the snares, the authorities are also keeping a close vigil to avoid such an illegal practice. They are also carrying out raids on shops that sell snares and other material for trapping wild animals to seize them and book the culprits.
NSTR field director and conservator of forests Yeshoda Bai said, “We have initiated a series of measures to intensify patrolling even in deep forest areas by setting up anti-poaching camps and using drones and camera traps to protect the wild animals including tigers from poaching and ensure the NSTR to become a safe shelter for them.”
Meanwhile, the experts committee has inspected the NSTR recently and recommended a series of measures including improvement in the wireless communication system, security audit of the entire core and buffer area, a tiger audit, enhancement of camera trap coverage and roping in of the police department to deal with country made illegal firearms that are being used in poaching wild animals.
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