Kolkata: Smart scarecrows will be used in the Sundarbans to keep straying tigers at bay and check human-animal conflict.
Known as ANIDERS (Animal Intrusion Detection and Repellant System), these smart scarecrows are innovative solar-powered devices designed to deter tigers, leopards and other big cats from entering villages and agricultural fields.
Four such devices were deployed yesterday on strategic locations near the forest-village interface in the Herobhanga compartment.
This is part of the Raidighi range in the Kultali block, where incidents of human-tiger conflict are often reported. Four more scarecrows will be deployed soon.
These areas are buffer zones around tiger reserves, according to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
These devices are currently deployed in UP’s Pilibhit and Katarniaghat, among other places.
The devices use sensors to trigger intense light and loud buzzes of sound alarms to scare away animals without harming them.
Each device covers a range of at least 25-30 m in 180 degree angle from its centre point.
Cameras have been installed at strategic locations where tigers cross canals to enter villages.
AI cameras will be placed at the locations so the combined system generates both alerts and pictures.
ANIDERS has been deployed in the Pilibhit forest division of UP, which faces the unique problem of ‘sugarcane tigers’.
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