Tiger tracking system soon to be launched in 47 reserves: Govt

With poaching being the largest threat to tigers, a specialised tracking system will soon be launched in the country's 47 tiger reserves to curb wildlife crimes, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
The Management Information System (MIS) based tiger tracking system will enable real-time exchange of information and data between officials of the tiger reserves in case there are incidents of seizures, poaching and other wildlife crimes.
Javadekar said the MIS-based tiger tracking system will soon be launched by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in collaboration with Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB).
"The MIS-based tracking would strengthen the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and help in controlling wildlife crimes in tiger reserves," he said while addressing the 10th meeting of the NTCA.

Javadekar also said that his ministry has also introduced Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for dealing with orphaned tiger cubs. The re-breeding of orphan tiger cubs and their successful reproduction in a new area has also been encouraging, he said during the meeting.
NTCA officials said that the MIS system has been developed by WCCB and it gives a platform where all tiger reserves can come on the same wavelength through an online medium.

"The access will be password protected. The strength of this is that if there is any seizure, poaching, any untoward thing happening in one reserve, the other reserve will be in a position to obtain the data relating to nature of the offence, offenders, what could be the possible escape for him and others," NTCA member secretary Rajesh Gopal said.

He said that the system was only for the 47 tiger reserves and will be launched within a couple of weeks. The system will also help one particular reserve to keep itself alerted once any wildlife crime is reported in other reserve, Gopal said.
Appreciating the need of technology in the field of tiger conservation, the Minister said that the use of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) "Alert System" would also be utilized in case of disasters pertaining to fire and floods.