The Forest department have taken a number of technology initiatives for enhancing wild life conservation in UP in collaboration with Ambalika Institute of technology based at Lucknow.
Ambalika Institute has developed a Remote Trap Monitoring System ( which has been deployed in Dhudwa National Park.
The Forest Dept. also appreciates the GPS based Android application and the Remote monitoring Solar powered Cameras that have made it easier for wildlife monitoring with the invaluable aid of the Remote monitoring Robotic vehicle also designed by Ambalika.
Mr. Pawan Singh, IFS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) on behalf of the Forest Dept, UP shows its appreciation by nominating Ambalika Institute for their annual award in efforts in wildlife conservation.
(Left to Right- Prof. Mukul Gupta, Director Ambalika; Mr. Ambika Misra, Chairman Ambalika; Mr. Pawan Singh, Chief of Forests PCCF; Mr. Shekhar Tandon, CTO Ambalika; Mr. Shivam Tandon, Student of Ambalika)
For capturing wild animals like Tigers, Leopards etc, the foresters use very large steel traps which are laid out in the deep jungle. It may take up to several weeks to capture a desired animal and during this time to monitoring the traps take very large number of trained manpower, however the students and teachers of Ambalika Institute, with the help of forest officers have developed a state of the art electronic remote monitoring system for traps.
The Ambalika Institute developed a Digital Camera mounted on a robotic remote controlled vehicle to track animals hidden in closed premises and in tall grass. Efforts are on to mount a remote controlled tranquilizing gun on this vehicle to effect capture such animals with out human interface with wild animals.
Once the traps are armed, the laser beams of the system activate a circuit which send alert SMS on the pre-programmed mobile numbers soon as the animal crosses the beam and a video of the trap and its surrounding is transmitted which can be viewed by the monitoring team from anywhere in the world. The entire system runs on Solar power thus can be activated in remote jungle depths.
One such unit has been installed in Dudhwa national park with excellent results.
On the Internet only one such device has been found which has been developed and marketed by a USA based firm and this device does not give video feedback. The monitoring team gets only an SMS.
While working on this project, a student of Ambalika Institute also developed an application for Dudhwa National park. This application will geo-tag major land marks of the park and a visitor will hear verbal commentary on his mobile about the land mark as he enters this area. The app will also monitor the whereabouts of visitor and will keep briefing the visitor on dos and dont’s in any given area. This app once completely ready will prove to be a boon.
The forest department is also exploring the possibilities of creating a dedicated Wifi network over the entire forest area of Dudhwa to closely monitor the to closely monitor the ever growing wild life in the region with remote solar powered camera. The Ambalika Institute has provided the technology to achieve this.
