“The struggle was real – piles and piles of paperwork and forms, it would take us a sufficient amount of time to organize the data and proceed further with the case. Such delays directly impacted the plausibility of the case, which lead to lop-sided judgments and sometimes acquittals altogether. It was the need-of-the-hour to have a compact, streamlined system of data management for wildlife & forest crimes; HAWK introduction has helped create a system. At just the click of a button, all the information we need is right in front of us.” An official of the Kerala Forest Department recalls how HAWK has revolutionized the wildlife crime information management system.

A constant challenge faced by the state Forest Departments in India, is tracking wildlife crimes which lacks a systematic database to store crucial information. Today, technology has entered almost every aspect of our daily lives and is so dynamic; the introduction of technology has aided wildlife crime prevention owing to the use of drones, acoustic devices and thermal imaging. Along similar lines, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), in association with IFAW, has developed a system called HAWK, which stands for Hostile Activity Watch Kernel.

HAWK Practical at Walayar SFTI

HAWK is a software developed exclusively to manage wildlife and forest crimes, monitoring criminals, facilitating easy coordination and tracking crime syndicate which analyses the networks of wildlife crime. The need of HAWK was realized due to the magnified gap between investigations and convictions, which lead to reduced convictions and pro-conservation judgements. After a series of discussions with the Forest Department, the team felt the need for a highly-sophisticated software to ease their work which could result in effective findings.

HAWK also manages information on wildlife mortality and helps officials analyze actionable intelligence which can aid in curbing illegal wildlife trade (IWT) in the country. The advantage of HAWK software is, its adaptability to cater to various aspects of wildlife crime and its components such as tracking crime syndicates, monitoring wildlife mortality and sharing real-time data on the nature of crime prevalent area. The incorporation of HAWK into the Forest Department’s execution of duties is set to change the way that wildlife crime monitoring is done in the country.

Marayoor Division Training

In 2019, HAWK software was inaugurated by the Head of Forest Force of Kerala, Mr. P K Kesavan IFS. WTI, thereafter a detailed orientation on the software was given to the officers. Following this, regular trainings were organised with Territorial Forest Divisions and Wildlife Forest Divisions under the Kerala Forest Department and the officers were introduced to the different modules of HAWK. Training and orientation plays a crucial role in helping the Forest Department officials understand the optimum usage of the software, for this reason WTI’s team of experts held regular discussions with them.

Nilambur North Division Training

Kerala is currently the only state in the country to officially adopt HAWK and the forest officers are being inducted with the use of the software in day-long training sessions. The officers are also trained to use the modules of HAWK – Peregrine (Offence), Shikra (Death), and Harrier (Suspect). Until now, WTI has conducted 36 trainings and trained 832 officials of the Kerala State Forest Department and the new batches of forest officers joining the State Forest Training Institute (SFTI), will also be trained, as per the requirement of the Forest Department.

We aim to extend our support further to other state Forest Departments, in due course of time in order to increase efficiency and transparency for the Department. HAWK uses the industry’s most-trusted security algorithms which makes it accurate and ensures that the data generated can be trusted. Another important module of HAWK is known as C-HAWK or Cyber HAWK, which is a citizen science initiative aimed at encouraging the participation of public to report wildlife crime which they come across online or offline.