No poaching incident reported from Corbett: Park director

Tiger poaching in Uttarakhand's Jim Corbett National Park has been controlled due to the hi-tech E-eye surveillance system.
Corbett Tiger Reserve's Director Samir Sinha said in the recent past no cases of poaching was reported from their area.
"Our E-eye system acts as a deterrent for poachers because they know that our E-eye (electronic eye) with high-resolution thermal and infrared cameras can catch them if they intrude into the area. It is a successful model using technology to combat human intervention," Sinha told PTI during a visit to the city.
He said the cameras, spread all over the tiger reserve, catches images 24/7 and transmits them to their office.

"However poaching remains a continuous threat. Each day is a fresh battle for us and we can't rest on the laurels of our past," Sinha said on the sidelines of a function to raise awareness on tiger conservation at the Indian Museum yesterday.
He said any human activity whether it is caused by poachers or any infiltrator into the Park area sends off an alarm.

"Our guards know what is happening in which area," the forester said.
When asked about disturbance to wildlife due to an increase in tourists in national parks of India, he said tourism is a double-edged sword.

"We want tourism so that people can fall in love with our natural heritage - forests and wildlife. But the challenge is to channelise it in the right direction. Tourism is becoming tiger-centric," Sinha said, adding that there is a huge gap between what tourism is at present and what it can become.
To regulate tourism activities in the Corbett Park, the authorities have imposed a blanket ban on noise pollution in a radius of 500 metres around the national park and declared it a "complete silence zone".
"We have also prohibited construction of buildings higher than two storeys within a 2-km radius of the tiger reserve," the Park director said adding that they have asked hotels and resorts in the vicinity of the forest to firm up plans on waste management and self-regulation.

"It should be a two-way process," Sinha said.