As part of the ongoing Elephant Estimation 2024 exercise, experts from Aaranyak, one of India's leading research-oriented biodiversity conservation organisations, have provided GPS training to frontline forest officials from various divisions of the Assam Forest Department.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite navigation system used to determine the ground position of an object.
As requested by the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Goalpara in Assam, Tezas Mariswamy, an expert team from Aaranyak provided GPS training to forest personnel from the division at the DFO office.
Arup Kumar Das, a senior officer at Aaranyak, provided training and presented block maps of the Elephant Estimation exercise to all forest staff in the division, as well as Elephant Estimation experts from the Assam Forest Department in Guwahati.
"We showed GIS-based block maps of various ranges in the Goalpara Forest Division. The programme was attended by all of the Forest Range Officers from the Goalpara Forest Division. About 70 forest officials attended the course. GPS hands-on training was delivered to approximately 15 Goalpara Forest Division (T) employees, including a practical session on uploading block boundaries in GPS," Aaranyak official Arup Das stated.
Arup Das and another Aaranyak expert with Madhumita Borthakur provided further GPS training to forest officers from the Kamrup West Forest Division of the state in response to a request from Divisional Forest Officer Dimpi Bora.
The workshop provided technical support for Elephant Estimation 2024.
In addition to providing GPS instruction, the Aaranyak experts created Block Maps to aid in elephant population estimation.
According to an official request from N. K. Das, DFO of Tinsukia Wildlife Division, to the Secretary General and CEO of Aaranyak Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, the organization's senior official Arup Kumar Das assisted the forest division in preparing block maps and hands-on GPS training for the ongoing Elephant Estimation 2024 project.
The block maps of the elephant estimating 2024 for Dibru-Saikhowa National Park were developed for the park authority to use during the elephant population estimation, which began on February 20 and will continue until February 27.
GPS training programs significantly improve the ability to precisely record GPS locations of elephant sightings inside each estimating block, which aids in conservation efforts and habitat management. Das, a GIS and GPS expert, stated.
He, along with Aaranyak officer Avishek Sarkar, provided hands-on GPS instruction to forest officials from Dibru-Saikhowa National Park's two forest ranges, the Guijan and Saikhowa Ranges.
Santana Medhi, Guijan Forest Range Officer, and Pinku Singh, Saikhowa Forest Range Officer, were also in attendance for the GPS training on the Guijan Range office's campus.
In addition to GPS training, GPS Essential mobile app training has been provided, which will be useful during fieldwork. In addition, a practical workshop was held on uploading block boundaries in GPS utilizing Base Camp software for elephant estimating.
Approximately 45-50 forest authorities attended the training programme.
Dr Dipankar Lahkar, a conservation biologist from Aaranyak, trained the Chirang Forest Division workers on elephant population estimation at the DFO headquarters.
The goal of elephant estimating is to direct conservation efforts by assessing populations' health and habitat requirements, as well as developing solutions for alleviating human-elephant conflicts.
