JOIN USInfrared, laser, camera: cashing in on sandalwood theft
When Rudragowda Mattur of Nandihalli in Belagavi district awoke one morning a few weeks ago, he expected to see his eight-year-old sandalwood plantation standing intact. Instead, he found a scene of devastation with thieves having come at the dead of night to make off with nearly 300 trees.
Mattur’s story was echoed by other sandalwood growers during the annual National Conference on Sandalwood, held at the Indian Institute of Science, in the city, on Monday.
“We demand that the government offer us protection because why else are we paying a 15% tax to them?” shouted one grower, Kavitha Mishra, who complained of frequent thefts at her plantation in Raichur. The litany of horror stories, describing how entire rows of trees were levelled by night brigands following years of careful cultivation prompted many new sandalwood growers to show an interest in advanced surveillance gear to protect their properties.
Thirty-year-old Ramakrishna Kammari of Gadwal, Telangana, who co-owns a three-year-old plantation with his parents, approached a local surveillance company to ask how much it would cost to outfit his 10-acre farm with a closed-circuit television system. “The company said its system allows for a warning to be sent on my mobile in the event of an incursion, which is good, but in the end, it all depends on the price,” Kammari told Deccan Herald.
Imported from Japan
Giridharan Vasudevan, a sales manager for a Haryana-based surveillance firm, said that his system, which is imported from Japan, ties sophisticated infrared motion detectors to a point, tilt and zoom (PTZ) camera system which can observe large tracts of land.
“The beauty of the system is that once the motion sensors detect an intruder at the perimeter, it alerts the plantation owner and any security personnel he or she has on staff. It also tells the camera system where to look. In this way, the entire system becomes smart,” he said.
For a hypothetical farm measuring 1,000 square metres, a PTZ camera system would cost anywhere from Rs 1.6 to 8 lakh, with the motion sensors costing extra, Vasudevan said.
“Most large plantations rely on a group of armed guards patrolling the farm to protect the owner’s investment, but with a smart camera-infrared system, the number of human guards can be cut down by half,” he added.
Mattur decried the high cost of the equipment. “Most of us are just ordinary farmers,” he said. “How are we supposed to afford such expenses? The government must help us.”