How rangers are using AI to help protect India's tigers

Image source, Himanshu Bagde

A vet for 22 years has been treating animals at a national park in India.

The tiger is his favourite animal. They are gorgeous. He says he needs to feel their soft skin to relax.

He says that a tiger's life is hard for females and that the tiger's strength is greater than that of the male tiger. She is so brave for her animals. She is going to take on a big tiger who is trying to harm her pups.

He has mostly treated tigers that have been injured while protecting their pups. He has treated tigers that have been poisoned by people who put toxins in their water.

He says that he cries when he sees that they are killed for their skin, nails and teeth.

Image source, Akhilesh Mishra

Most of India's tigers live in one of the 51 tiger reserves, which cover 74,000 square kilometres.

It's difficult to estimate the tiger population.

In order to carry out its most recent survey, the NCTA deployed camera traps in 26,838 locations.

Researchers spent hundreds of thousands of kilometres on foot looking for tigers and their prey.

Artificial intelligence was used to wade through the data.

It would have taken a lot of time for humans to identify which animals were pictured by the camera traps.

The NTCA wants to take the use of artificial intelligence to a higher level. The best routes for patrolling the vast areas are being developed.

Image source, Getty Images

Data about the tiger population, how it moves, and the local terrain are analysed by it.

The assistant inspector general at the NTCA predicts that artificial intelligence will help detect wildlife crimes.

More technology is great, but it can't replace boots on the ground.

The tigers outside of the protected parks are extremely vulnerable according to environmentalist.

The tiger population is unlikely to increase unless we expand our protected area network.

There needs to be more human patrols that are betterequipped.

Better use of technology for monitoring and protection is required. He says that the use of drones, camera traps, real-time tracking of Poachers, and use of metal detectors for locating snares and traps needs to be increased and intensified.

As tigers and humans are closer to each other, monitoring is more important than ever.

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There is a forest in Maharashtra. Over the last four years, the number of tigers in his state has increased.

The local population is encroaching on the forests where tigers live and hunt as the tiger population has grown.

The tigers are vulnerable when moving from one forested area to another. He hopes that artificial intelligence can help predict tigers' movements in the forest.

Human rangers will still be required. It is not possible to replace human intelligence with Artificial Intelligence.

Poachers have become more sophisticated according to Jerryl Banait. They know where cameras are and avoid regular trails.

Image source, Getty Images

His organisation has developed an artificial intelligence which can use the data collected by cameras and rangers, as well as data from satellites and information from the local population.

He hopes that forest departments across India will use this more sophisticated hybrid technology to protect animals that are outside National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the future.

There is no human interference in the already shrunk wildlife habitats with the limited territories available for the wild animals.

One well-known tiger, Baghin nala, was killed in the Pench National Park.

The poisoned animal was found dead in the Pench Tiger Reserve in March of 2016

It was a sight of joy when we brought her up in captivity, developing her hunting skills to survive in the harsh forest.