The Indian Federal Government has deployed drones to help with the protection of rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park. In addition to the drones, the park has been granted $7 million (R64,8 million) and an additional 500 guards. The drones would track the location of the rhinos, and hopefully capture any poaching attempts on camera for the sake of prosecution.

Currently only 150 guards protect the National Park, situated deep in the heart of Assam, a northeastern province in India. Kaziranga National Park is home to three quarters of the world’s one horned rhino population.

Last year poachers killed 22 rhinos, and another 13 have already been killed this year.

The rhino poaching problem in South Africa is much worse than in India, with over 650 rhinos killed last year alone. Clive Vivier, South African rhino reserve founder wants to buy 30 drones, despite their cost of $300 000 (R2,7 million).

Though novel, this isn’t the first time drones have been deployed to protect wildlife. A reserve in Kenya used crowdsourcing to raise half of the $70 000 (R648 000) needed to purchase a similar surveillance drone, which sported an HD camera and night vision.

The World Wildlife Fund is planning to deploy a drone in either Africa or Asia this year and another drone next year, backed by a Google grant.

[Source: Quartz]