The forest department of Chhattisgarh has developed a mobile application aimed at tracking the movements of elephants and notifying nearby villagers about their presence. The app serves to complement the existing practice of elephant trackers, ensuring that individuals in affected villages receive timely information about the elephants through calls and messages on their mobile phones.
V. Srinavasa Rao, the in-charge principal chief conservator of forests in Chhattisgarh, explained, “The objective of the application is to supplement the ‘munaadi’ done by elephant trackers so that every person in the affected village is well informed of the presence of elephants in their vicinity through calls and messages on their mobile phone.”
The application is a joint effort between the Forest Management Information System (FMIS) and the Wildlife Wing. Under the state’s Haathi Mitra Dal scheme, elephant trackers will provide information on the elephants’ location, behavior, and other relevant attributes.
Varun Jain, deputy director of Udanti Tiger Reserve, stated, “The mobile numbers and GPS location of villagers in the elephant-affected areas are being registered using the alert and tracking app. This is being done so that whenever the elephant is within a radius of 10 km, they will receive call, SMS, and WhatsApp alerts.”
To receive the alerts, villagers need to register their mobile numbers along with their GPS location through the respective beat guards. The app offers various features, including tracking elephant routes using a time period filter and allowing users to filter elephant herds and routes. Additionally, the application can be used to collect information and send alerts about other animals as well.
In December 2022, the Chhattisgarh forest department reported that human-elephant conflicts in the state had resulted in the deaths of 77 elephants and 296 people over a span of five years. The state is home to approximately 300 wild elephants, and the new app aims to mitigate such conflicts and enhance community safety by keeping villagers informed about elephant movements.
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