Collars to decode jumbo routes from North Bengal to Nepal, Bhutan
Krishnendu Mukherjee | TNN | Updated: Apr 21, 2019, 11:28 IST
The radio collars supposed to be used on elephants in south BengalKOLKATA: The radio collars supposed to be used on elephants in south Bengal will now help foresters track transboundary movements of jumbos in north Bengal. The project in south Bengal was put on hold last year due to panchayat polls, the death of Lalgarh tiger and heat wave.
State’s chief wildlife warden Ravi Kant Sinha said since two radio collars had already been procured, they would now be used in north Bengal. The exercise is likely to be kicked off in the region on April 28. “There’s no point in wasting the batteries. So, we have planned to put them in use in north Bengal. Once we revive the project for south Bengal, we will procure collars again. Currently, the collars are being tested on captive jumbos,” Sinha added.
While the project in south Bengal was aimed at mainly checking human-elephant conflict, in north Bengal, researchers also want to track the transboundary movements of elephants. “That’s why we have plans to radio-collar two elephants from separate herds — one on the Nepal border and the other on the Bhutan border. The state forest department with the technical support of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore is implementing the project,” said Aritra Kshettry, a researcher with IISc.
The GPS collars have been designed in collaboration with a French organisation and its signals can be tracked from a computer or a cell phone. While each collar costs about Rs 2 lakh, a yearly payment of Rs 50,000 is needed to be made as tracking charges.
With this, the elephants in Bengal are set to get radio collars after more than a decade. Elephants were last radio-collared in Bengal in 2003. A researcher from IISc revealed that the exercise was taken up in Buxa-Jaldapara landscape. Seven elephants were radio-collared at that time and the move was aimed at aiding academic research.
A source said that the matriarchs or female leaders of two separate herds would be collared now. According to Sinha, the department already has data about movement of lone tuskers. North Bengal is now home to about 500 elephants.
State’s chief wildlife warden Ravi Kant Sinha said since two radio collars had already been procured, they would now be used in north Bengal. The exercise is likely to be kicked off in the region on April 28. “There’s no point in wasting the batteries. So, we have planned to put them in use in north Bengal. Once we revive the project for south Bengal, we will procure collars again. Currently, the collars are being tested on captive jumbos,” Sinha added.
While the project in south Bengal was aimed at mainly checking human-elephant conflict, in north Bengal, researchers also want to track the transboundary movements of elephants. “That’s why we have plans to radio-collar two elephants from separate herds — one on the Nepal border and the other on the Bhutan border. The state forest department with the technical support of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore is implementing the project,” said Aritra Kshettry, a researcher with IISc.
The GPS collars have been designed in collaboration with a French organisation and its signals can be tracked from a computer or a cell phone. While each collar costs about Rs 2 lakh, a yearly payment of Rs 50,000 is needed to be made as tracking charges.
With this, the elephants in Bengal are set to get radio collars after more than a decade. Elephants were last radio-collared in Bengal in 2003. A researcher from IISc revealed that the exercise was taken up in Buxa-Jaldapara landscape. Seven elephants were radio-collared at that time and the move was aimed at aiding academic research.
A source said that the matriarchs or female leaders of two separate herds would be collared now. According to Sinha, the department already has data about movement of lone tuskers. North Bengal is now home to about 500 elephants.
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