‘Smart scarecrows’ in Sundarbans to keep tigers away from villages, check conflict

Kolkata: After nylon nets, solar lights and AI cameras, ‘smart scarecrows' have come to the Sundarbans to keep straying tigers at bay and check human-animal conflict.In 2024, there were at least 15 cases of tigers straying from the South 24 Parganas forest division of the Sunderbans into fringe villages. Last year, at least two such cases were reported. This year, an incident was reported a few days ago from Jharkhali's Tridibnagar, in the same division.
Smart scarecrows, often known as ANIDERS (Animal Intrusion Detection and Repellent System), are innovative solar-powered devices designed to deter tigers, leopards, and other big cats from entering human habitations and agricultural fields, particularly in buffer zones around tiger reserves, said a senior official at Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), which has provided four devices to the forest department.These devices, according to Abhishek Ghosal, head of human-wildlife conflict mitigation at WTI, are currently deployed in UP's Pilibhit and Katarniaghat, among other places. They use sensors to trigger light and sound alarms to scare away animals without harming them.In the Sundarbans, the four devices were deployed on Tuesday at strategic locations near the forest-village interface in the Herobhanga compartment, part of the Raidighi range, where incidents of human-tiger conflict are often reported. Four more will be installed soon.Ghosal said the devices have been installed at strategic locations where tigers cross canals to enter the village. AI cameras will be placed at the locations so that the combined system generates both alerts and pictures."These ‘scarecrows' use a combination of loud buzzes of sound and intense light to startle the animal and push back its movement. The Pilibhit forest division in UP, which faces the unique problem of ‘sugarcane tigers', is one of the places where ANIDERS have been deployed. Pilibhit Tiger Rerserve has seen a sharp increase in its tiger population between 2014 and 2022, exceeding its capacity," said a source.Sugarcane tigers refer to tigers that have adapted to living in dense, tall sugarcane fields rather than forests.The setups will be monitored by WTI and forest department. "We are trying to find out how this system works in the mangrove eco-system," Ghosal said.Samrat Paul, field officer, Sundarbans Tiger Project of WTI, said each device covers a range of at least 25-30 metres in 180° angle from its centre point.Divisional forest officer, South 24 Parganas, Nisha Goswami, said, "In the long run, focus will be more on sustainable, cost-effective and non-lethal approaches towards conflict mitigation."The South 24 Parganas forest division with ranges such as Matla, Ramganga and Raidighi is home to more than 20 tigers, as per the last all-India tiger estimation report. The report said that though the Indian Sundarbans is now home to about 101 tigers, the figures indicate that big cat numbers may be inching closer to carrying capacity.Carrying capacity is the maximum number of a particular animal that can live in a certain area in a stable manner. Any more than that can result in human-animal conflict.Around 10 months ago, a tiger straying incident was reported from the Deulbari village in the buffer zone after a big cat had reportedly come out of the reserve area to sneak into the village.