India to soon manufacture tiger protection equipment: Dave

New Delhi: India will start manufacturing collars, drones and other equipment used for tiger protection under its 'Make in India' initiative soon.

Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave Friday said manufacturing of these equipment is expected to start within two years in the country.

"On the lines of @makeinindia we will start manufacturing Collars, Drones & other equipments used for tiger conservation in next 2 years," Dave tweeted.

Sources in the Environment Ministry said discussions regarding the issue were held during the recently-concluded meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

According to reports, the NTCA is awaiting a final nod from the Ministry of Defence to start its ambitious drone monitoring project for combating wildlife poaching and man-animal conflict.

Earlier this year, NTCA had signed an MoU with Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to start monitoring by drones in the tiger reserves of Panna, Jim Corbett National Park, Kaziranga, Sundarbans and the Sathyamangalam forest of Tamil Nadu.

Fitted with GPS device and hi-resolution cameras, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) also known as drones, are fast becoming a necessary hi-tech tool in wildlife management all over the world.