sanjeevafk/vanrakshak-forest-aerial-thermal

🌲 VanRakshak: Forest & Wildlife Aerial-Thermal Dataset

A comprehensive, curated dataset of aerial and thermal imagery optimized for forest surveillance, anti-poaching, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and wildfire detection via UAVs and drones.

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📊 Quick Start

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load full dataset with instant streaming and native image/bbox decoding
dataset = load_dataset("sanjeevafk/vanrakshak-forest-aerial-thermal")

# Access sample with bounding boxes and classes
sample = dataset["train"][0]
image = sample["image"]
bboxes = sample["objects"]["bbox"]
categories = sample["objects"]["category"]

Target Classes (6 Categories)

Class ID	Label	Description & Strategic Application
0	person	Human detection in dense canopy / thermal night patrols (anti-poaching & lost hikers)
1	vehicle	Unauthorized surveillance / patrol trucks / civilian intrusions
2	timber_truck	Illegal logging and illicit timber transit tracking
3	fire	Early-stage wildfire and active flame detection
4	smoke	Forest canopy smoke plumes for rapid wildfire alerting
5	elephant	Wildlife monitoring and human-elephant conflict mitigation

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📈 Dataset Statistics

Split	Images	Bounding Boxes	Formats Available
Train	4,000	~32,000+	Parquet
Validation	3,946	~31,000+	Parquet
Total	7,946	~63,000+	Native Hugging Face & YOLOv8

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📜 Citation & License

This dataset is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License.

@dataset{vanrakshak_2026,
  author       = {Sanjeev and VanRakshak Project Contributors},
  title        = {VanRakshak: Forest & Wildlife Aerial-Thermal Dataset},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Hugging Face},
  howpublished = {\\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/sanjeevafk/vanrakshak-forest-aerial-thermal}}
}