Drones and more: Wildlife conservation is about to go high-tech, thanks to the new plan!

New Delhi: Wildlife conservation has become more of a necessity in the present times, than a mere requirement. Wildlife safety is essential for the sustenance of humankind is the reality of life and something all of us, the world over need to pay heed to.

The Centre realises the magnitude of the situation and has therefore, decided to come out with a new 14-year road map to strengthen measures for wildlife conservation in India.

The plan will be a comprehensive one, one that will look into increasing the number of protected areas (PA's) and handling their management by way of high-tech surveillance like drones and centralised web-based digital equipment.

According to the Economic Times, the roadmap, National Wildlife Action Plan 2017-31, has been finalised after consulting states and other stakeholders, including conservationists. It covers all important issues concerning conservation, ranging from rehabilitation of threatened species to integrating climate change in wildlife planning, control of poaching and illegal trade, mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts and management of tourism in wildlife areas.

Along with round-the-clock surveillance, the new plan will incorporate the best practices from around the world and fixed timelines for also creating a fresh database of endangered species.

The Economic Times also reported that, at present, there are a total of 726 PAs (national park, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves) in the country covering 1.60 lakh sq km (4.88% of the geographical area). The 2017-31 will be the third such action plan. The first one was drafted and adopted in 1983. Under the new plan, the Environment Ministry has formulated detailed guidelines for using technology to check wildlife crimes.

"All the forest guards will be trained to use such mobile-based technology which will use the data from the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). All field information will be transmitted to centralised control rooms at state capitals for round-the-clock monitoring," a senior environment ministry official told Economic Times.