This story is part of “How Tech Changed It” — The Better India’s series that looks at how technology has transformed the sectors, systems and everyday experiences around us. From how we travel and learn to how we farm, build, communicate and access healthcare, each story traces the journey from what it was like before to what it looks like today. Because technology isn’t just about new gadgets or breakthroughs — it can change how an entire sector works, making things faster, smarter, safer, more accessible and more efficient.

The forest is quiet just before sunrise. A sambar calls somewhere beyond the sal trees. Leaves rustle along a narrow trail, and on the soft earth, there is a familiar sign: the four-toed imprint of a tiger.

For decades, this was how much of the forest’s story was read — through pugmarks, tracks, scat and the trained eyes of forest guards walking kilometres each day. 

Today, the same landscape can tell its story very differently. A GPS-enabled phone can record a patrol route, a camera trap can identify an individual tiger from its stripes, and an AI-enabled camera can potentially send an alert to a ranger within seconds.

The forest has not changed as much as the tools used to understand and protect it have.

When a pugmark was the evidence

Before smartphones, camera traps and artificial intelligence, monitoring a tiger often meant following its physical signs.

Forest staff would walk through tiger habitats, look for pugmarks and other signs, and record observations by hand.........

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