Drone-Based Wildlife Monitoring

Drone-Based Wildlife Monitoring

Company

Case Studies

drone-based-wildlife-monitoring

State Forest Department — Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu Forest Department is the state agency responsible for conservation, wildlife protection, and the management of forest ecosystems across Tamil Nadu. Beginning around 2021–2022, the department introduced drone-assisted monitoring programmes in selected forest divisions to track the movement of elephants and tigers, particularly in areas where wildlife corridors intersect with human settlements. Garuda Aerospace was engaged as the technology partner to deploy drone platforms for rapid aerial surveillance across complex forest terrain.

The Challenge

Forest authorities and communities living near forest boundaries faced five distinct operational challenges in monitoring wildlife and responding to conflict situations:

Expansion of human settlements and agricultural land into forest fringes increased the frequency of dangerous encounters between people and wildlife, with insufficient early warning systems in place

Tracking the movement of elephants and large predators across dense forests and difficult terrain was challenging using traditional ground-based patrol methods — particularly when animals moved at night or in remote areas

Monitoring wildlife activity during night-time or low-light conditions was difficult due to limited visibility and the absence of advanced surveillance tools

Without real-time situational awareness, forest teams experienced significant delays in identifying wildlife movement near villages and deploying response teams

The sheer scale of forest regions and buffer zones made comprehensive coverage impossible with conventional watch tower and patrol methods

The Drone Solution

Geography: Forest divisions, wildlife corridors and buffer zones across Tamil Nadu, commenced 2021–2022

Tools Used: RGB & Thermal Imaging Cameras, Loudspeaker-Equipped Drones, Live Aerial Feeds

Target Species: Elephants, Tigers and other large wildlife near forest-human interfaces

Outcome: Delivered real-time aerial wildlife situational awareness to forest control rooms, enabled 24-hour day-and-night monitoring, and supported rapid deployment of field response teams when animal movement was detected near villages

Outcomes

Drones provided forest officials with real-time aerial views of wildlife movement across large forest landscapes — transforming the speed and quality of incident assessment compared to ground patrol reporting alone.

Thermal imaging cameras enabled reliable wildlife tracking during night-time operations, when most large wildlife is active and ground-based observation is most constrained.

When animal movement was detected near villages, aerial monitoring enabled quicker and more targeted deployment of response teams — reducing the window for conflict escalation.

Live aerial feeds transmitted directly to forest control rooms gave officials the ability to assess wildlife location and movement in real time, enabling more confident decision-making in the field.

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