Kruger National Park rangers have turned to information technology to assist them in guarding the vast reserve that is home to hundreds of wildlife species among them a number of endangered species such as the Pangolins, Elephants, white Rhino, and African wild dog among others.
The rangers are using a high tech software called c-more to monitor the security in one of Africa’s oldest parks sprawling over 360 kilometers of land. The park has been divided into four regions under the watchful eye of a regional ranger.
The vast Kruger Park borders farms, private reserves, townships and national reserves in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Tourism business and employment opportunities in the park have led to growth of townships which have also been used by poachers to illegally access the parks and hunt illegally.
An undeclared national park in Mozambique bordering the park has also been a gateway for poachers causing a lot of damages in the park.
Kruger rangers’ adaptation of the c-more application system has enabled them to regulate the park by storing data captured in the field and events happening across the park which in turn helps in combating poaching. For instance the system has enabled the rangers to know poaching hotpots in the park, which at the moment points at the park borders and the southern region of the park.
The application gives an idea of what is happening in the park, by analyzing the data filed in the system by daily situation reports, one can tell when, where and the frequency of poaching events in the park. Last year alone, at least 826 Rhinos and 24 elephants were killed by poachers, in 2016 so far 504 Rhinos have been killed and 40 elephants as well.
Numbers of Rhinos killed in poaching is expected to go down this year after declined numbers declined over the past nine months, however the threat of elephant poaching has for a while not haunted South Africa has coming knocking with higher numbers of elephant poaching being recorded.
Rangers are able to track poachers in the park by the rail they leave behind when camping, leaving their tracks, sighting them and through information from their contacts or the general public. The software system allows the rangers to create a database of the poachers including their photographs making it easier to profile the individuals. In addition documentation of the type of ammunition and equipment used by poachers allows for effective detection and protection measures.
C-more has empowered the rangers with information that assists them in deployment, security tactics and in general improved safekeeping.
