Forest Department staff using a drone for monitoring an ailing elephant calf in Madukkarai range of the Coimbatore Forest Division in September this year.
The Coimbatore Forest Division is in the efforts to create a wildlife monitoring and patrol fleet of advanced drones, aimed at reducing the workload of the frontline staff and tapping latest technologies in wildlife conservation.
District Forest Officer (DFO) N. Vengatesh Prabhu told The Hindu that works to procure advanced drones using corporate social responsibility funds from sponsors were under way.
The plan is to procure 12 drones initially and eventually increase the numbers, so that each of the seven forest ranges in the Division will get two drones.
According to the DFO, the drones, being planned to be procured, are AI-supported ones with inbuilt features like cameras and speakers. The AI in the drones will be able to detect the number of elephants in a herd or other animals during surveillance operations from a distance. During tracking or driving out operations of elephants, the speaker in the drones will enable the staff to alert people about animal movement. Thermal camera of the drone will help detect animals at night.
“The AI-powered drones will also be able to auto-track an elephant or a herd when required,” he said.
Each drone will come with six batteries and two batteries will be required at a time. The plan is to make alterations in select vehicles of the Department to support charging of spare batteries. The drones are expected to fly for about 45 minutes in the plains and around 30 minutes in the hilly areas.
Unlike the drones procured earlier, the proposed ones would be light-weight as most of the facilities come inbuilt.
The division is currently using a few of the available drones for forest fire detection, wildlife monitoring and during operations to track ailing elephants.
Published – November 14, 2026 10:35 pm IST
