Protection

1. Anti-Poaching Camp: In order to close monitoring 37 anti-poaching camps and 3 inspection huts are made inside the tiger project area. All the officers from the field director to guard and daily wages laborers are halted on APC during day and night from the protection point of view.

2. Wireless: STR having undulating terrain comprises high mountain range, hills, dense forest, and valleys. Due to these, there are difficulties in communication with the field staff. To overcome this problem, a wireless network is established by 36 wireless stations and 4 repeater stations. All the vehicles are also provided with a wireless set. While on patrolling, walky-talkies are provided for better communication and quick response during an emergency.

3. Watch Towers: Total 17 watch towers are created for the day-night monitoring operation, especially during the fire season all over the STR. Each watchtower is supplied with fire watchers and walky-talkies for quick communication with other protection staff to know the exact point or fire spot.

4. Fire Protection: All the officers did their registration on FSI and NASA website for getting alerts of fire during the fire season from 15 February to 15 June. In order to know the exact beat and compartment, STR fire cell processes the satellite data get from the website and mask the images on KML files of respective range and beat to know the exact location of fire spot to guide the field staff. This set is established for a timely and quick response of protection staff.

5. Intelligence Gathering: STR establishes a wide network of intelligence for the protection of the forest and wild animals. Specialized training is given to field staff at Maharashtra Intelligence Academy, Pune for intelligence to draw information prior to committing the crime and to catch the offenders.

6. Mobile and Dog Squad: With the protection point of view, a Mobile squad with well-equipped staff and vehicles appointed in STR. Specially trained sniffing dog Ritu is also used in the investigation of wildlife crimes and to find the criminals.

7. Beat Checking: A time-bound program of beat checking is practiced in STR. All the officers do the beat checking all around the year to closely monitor the staff, habitat, roads, waterholes, flora, and fauna to prevent mischief.

8. Special Patrolling and Naka Bandi: Beat, round, range, division level special patrolling designed for special occasions and needs are done for the protection point of view. Surprise naka-bandi was conducted to control illegal transport and trade related to wildlife and forest. For this, 13 Check Posts are established all over the STR.

9. Boundary Management: All the data regarding the land like 7/12, topo sheet, village map, boundary pillars, beat maps, round maps, range maps, core and buffer maps are made and regularly updated. At the time of patrolling, boundary pillars are also closely monitored.