Forest department seeks access to poachers’ call records

GUWAHATI: The forest department has sought Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s help to allow Kaziranga National Park officials track calls of poachers so that they can gather information about their activities.
The department approached Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change Prakash Javadekar here, requesting him to take up the matter with TRAI.
“Call Details Record (CDR) data is necessary for intelligence gathering. It can help us track poachers. We also need GPS records of mobile phones used by them,” the forest department said in its letter to the Union ministry.
So far, only state police have access to this facility, the department said, adding that getting such details from police takes an unusually long time. This makes real-time tracking and intelligence-gathering difficult. Officials said tracking poachers is a hurdle and innovative processes can only help overcome it. In 2010, the state government issued a notification which enabled forest officials, including game watchers, forest guards, foresters, forest rangers, assistant conservator of forests, deputy conservators of forests, divisional forest officers, conservators of forests, members and supervisory officers of Assam Forest Protection Force, to use firearms in conserving and managing protected areas.