e-tag device to help protect trekkers

Mahabir Pun, the Magsaysay award winner ITcian, has developed e-tag or tourists tracking device that will help send an encouraging message to the trekking lover around the globe.

As some trekkers have been in the past lost during solo trekking, the new device developed by Pun with Bangkok-based company now will help protect tourists, if they get lost, or meet accident or get attacked.

The e-tag technology – that will help track tourists – is like a pen drive like device that will not keep track with the help of internet of tourists but help relay information to the stations along the trekking routes. "In case of emergency, the tourist just need to press a button and the signal will be reached to the station, from where a rescue team will be mobilised," Pun informed during the launching of the tourist tracking device in Pokhara.

With the new technology, the trekkers – especially the solo trekkers – will feel it safe and can wander according to their will.

The technology has been installed in Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), the country's largest protected area and a popular trekking destination for foreign tourists.

Besides sending signals in danger, the device will also update location of tourists to a computer network – at the Annapurna Conservation Area Project office – that can be viewed by their friends and relatives across the globe.

Tourists can collect the device from the conservation area office before they set out for trekking by depositing a small sum. They can reclaim the deposit after returning the device when they return from treks.

The technology is however, under test for six months in the conservation area, Pun said, adding that the device will be distributed to other areas depending on its effectiveness. 

Some of the newspapers with vested interest have been tarnishing Nepal's image claiming that the trekkers are not safe in Nepal, but the new device will fail their propaganda.