As a first step to address the issue of man-animal conflict, the Karnataka Forest Department has decided to put elephant tracking Global Positioning System (GPS) on four wild jumbos. In fact, an improvised version of the GPS collar developed by the Department of Electronics Study, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here, would be used.

With this, Karnataka would become the first Indian state to use GPS collars on jumbos, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) G S Prabhu told Express.

The four elephants are from the Bandipur National Park. They have been posing problems in Kodagu and Hassan districts, attacking people and damaging crops. More pachyderms would be collared if the present mission turns a success.

The GPS idea has been employed in Sri Lanka, where 10 elephants were collared. This helped the forest authorities to track their movements and alert villagers much before they entered human habitation, said Prabhu. The GPS is based on a network of satellites using which the location of an object on the ground could be obtained, within a few meters accuracy. So these collars obtain an extremely accurate location for the elephant every four hours, night and day. They then transmit that information (six locations per day) once a day to another satellite that relays it back to the ground. This way, they would give extremely precise data on elephant movements every four hours.

Prabhu said the improvised version of the GPS collars developed by Department of Electronics Study are water-proof, cost effective and have a  better battery life. The collars used by the South African forest authorities were not water-proof, but very expensive. Even the battery life was less. The cost of IISc-developed collar is `1.5 lakh and it weighs less than two kg. The collars would be fixed around the neck of elephants after tranquilising them. Once done, the movements of elephants could be monitored on computers, laptops and even on mobile phones.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Shyam Sundar Vattam – Bangalore / August 30th, 2013