In an important development for India’s wildlife conservation efforts, the Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has deployed a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) system named “Pantera” to improve early detection of forest fires. The Satpuda Foundation, the Pench Tiger Conservation Foundation, and the Brazilian technology company Umgraumieo collaborated to create this ground-breaking solution.

The Pantera system includes a high-resolution pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera mounted on a tower near Kirringisarra village. This camera has a visual range of 15 km, covering over 350 sq km of the reserve. The control room for the system is situated in the West Pench range office.