02-07-2010
Seamless coverage of Gir sanctuary
Times of India By Himanshu Kaushik
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIA&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&GZ=T&AW=1278063586968
The forest department has decided that the wireless communication network cannot be limited to the Gir sanctuary. The project is at planning stage and the department is now proposing to have complete coverage across Gir forest and wildlife sanctuary area.
The tender which has been floated on the basis of the recommendations of the state task force require that the wireless communication network should be able to provide seamless voice communication facility in Gir forest and sanctuary area. The wireless communication network would also cater for extended Gir area in subsequent phases.
The task force, set up after the 2007 poaching incident, has recently come out with the recommendation. The officials said that the GPS and GIS-based tracking system to monitor the movement of all the vehicles and security personnel moving inside the Gir forest and national sanctuary area has to upload the position data automatically to the control room in real time.
The department also wants 25 messages prefed into the system. These include tree cut, tree fallen, poaching, fire, spotted lion, mating of lion, lion with cubs, lion in distress among others, with position and time stamping. Even the GPSbased hand-held device that will be given to the surveillance team when they are on beat duty would have such messages.
The officials said that the new proposed communication system should have adequate secrecy during voice communication. At present, voice communication is in broadcasting mode, manually repeated. In such a situation no information can remain confidential.The GPS-based vehicle tracking system for all the vehicles entering into the Gir forest national park and wildlife sanctuary is also to be developed, as part of the system.
The new system will also be application software integrated with the digital map of Gir sanctuary. Data from the hand-held GPS system of the surveillance personnel, vehicle movement and animal tracking system to be displayed on the map, as and when required.
The command and control center is to be set up at the office of conservator of forests (Wildlife) Sasan Gir. The GIS data of Gir forest and bruhad Gir area that includes Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Rajkot districts is to be customized, showing all the motorable roads inside the forest area, water bodies including the water points created by GFD, all the forest establishments offices, radio towers, watch towers among others.
Keeping tabs on staffers
The officials also want to keep their eyes on activities of their men in the field. "In the present set-up of the wireless communication, there is only one spot frequency and the senior forest officials keep monitoring the conversation among the beat guards and others to get an idea about the activities. As this is a common practice and has some definite administrative advantages, officials would like to have similar facilities in the new wireless communication system," states the tender document.
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