Hybrid drone-based survey of riverine habitat and crocodiles in complex landscapes

Technological integration in conservation and management dramatically increases the range and quality of data collection in a short time and with high accuracy. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are effective in surveillance, mapping, and monitoring and, combined with conventional remote-sensing techniques, offer enhanced scope and overcome several technological and operational challenges in wildlife research and management. Especially in places like India, where the terrain complexity is high and has a low workforce for routine patrolling, UAV technology offers an alternate support system to manage the natural areas and key species. Pioneer effort was made in India for surveying critically endangered aquatic species using UAV in Ken River, Madhya Pradesh. A fixed wing V-TOL UAV was used for survey approximately 24.5 km of river stretch flowing through Ken Gharial Sanctuary and Panna Tiger Reserve to count population of a critically endangered aquatic species, i.e., crocodiles. Flight time of almost 4.5 h maintaining 100 m altitude with five pre-planned missions the UAV acquired 5193 images covering 1858.564 hectares area. 61 crocodile and 1 gharial was found in the search effort. Body length measurement was calculated for every single individual. Our pioneering efforts received wider attention and facilitated increased use of the technology. Other than population count, we also recorded and processed data for crocodile habitat, landscape terrain, 3D models and NDVI. There is a need for concerted efforts to upscale the use of this technology with enhanced capacity of the researchers and managers to leverage its optimal capacity while supporting ground-based conservation with improved vigor and success.