Smart City hands over thermal drone to DoF

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Smart City, the Department of Forest (DoF), and the Man With Indies Foundation (MWIF)

have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) enabling forest officials to take prompt and well-coordinated action whenever wild animals are spotted in densely populated urban settlements. Under this agreement, a state-of-the-art thermal-based drone was handed over to the forest officials. This drone will be useful for locating and tracking wild animals day and night.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Smart City chief executive officer (CEO) G Sreekanth, conservator of forests (CoF) Pramod Chand Lakra, deputy CEO Ravindra Jogdand, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO, Planning) Vrushali Tambe Deshmukh, Syed Faiz Ali (Project Manager, IT section), and Ashish Joshi (MWIF).

Initiative after July 2024 leopard incident

In July 2024, several CCTV footage surfaced showing the movement of a leopard in the Prozone, Ulkanagari, and Garkheda areas. This created an atmosphere of fear among residents. A team of nearly 70 personnel including members of the DoF, Army soldiers, and Police, conducted a search operation. However, despite extensive efforts, the big cat could not be found.

“During this incident, it became evident that the drones available with the Smart City administration did not possess the advanced technological capabilities required for wildlife search operations. They lacked features such as thermal imaging, long-range zoom, intelligent tracking, and infrared cameras. Through this initiative, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar smart city has taken a progressive step by adopting modern drone technology to handle wildlife-related emergency situations,” said the sources.

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Features of the new drone

The state-of-the-art drone provided to the DoF includes the following essential technical features:

Thermal imaging camera – Helps detect animals in low light or those hidden in dense vegetation

High-resolution zoom and wide-angle cameras – For real-time monitoring.

Laser rangefinder – For accurate distance measurement.

Long-duration flight capability and AI-based object detection – Effective for operations in urban–forest interface areas.

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Benefits of the drone

This drone will be extremely useful for the following tasks:

Immediate detection and monitoring when wild animals enter city limits.

Assisting forest officials and municipal teams in search and rescue operations.

Preventive patrolling in urban areas adjacent to forests.

Supporting other municipal-level operations like disaster management, mapping, and emergency response.