An AI Tool To Prevent Elephant Deaths In Railway Tracks

The Tamil Nadu government will soon implement a scheme to prevent the incidents of elephants being hit by trains. Often, the elephants from the forests of Western Ghats are being killed by trains when they cross the railway tracks laid out in the area.

Environmentalists have time and again pointed out the necessity of conserving elephants in order to save forests. Despite knowing the fact that elephants play a crucial role in maintaining the biological balance of the forests, no equipment has been found to prevent the elephant deaths occurring in the railway tracks.

Tamil Nadu for the first time succeeded in the effort of saving elephant deaths by train hits. The Tamil Nadu forest department is trying to provide input data for an automatic device which detects the movement of elephants using Artificial Intelligence.

Surveillance to prevent casualties:

Railway line connecting Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu border and Walayar in Kerala border runs through a forest area for 7 km. From 2008 to 2022, 11 elephants have lost their lives while trying to cross this railway line. Many small animals were also killed in this railway line, the reports of which didn't attract the attention of the public as much as the elephant news did.

Realising the importance of biodiversity conservation, Tamil Nadu government has taken many protective measures including the setting up of solar lights near railway tracks, installing sound devices and watch towers and restricting the speed of the train to 40 km per hour in the areas of frequent animal movement.

7 crore worth project:

Palakkad railway division and forest department together decided to establish an underground tunnel on the elephant route at the cost of 7 crores. Accordingly, a tunnel was built where surveillance cameras were also installed. After the completion of test trials for monitoring the area through Artificial Intelligence from the control room, a full-time program will be operationalised.

The initiative is welcomed by many wildlife activists and environmentalists since it was a long standing demand of them to conserve biodiversity. Kalidasan, a nature enthusiast, requested the Union government to come forward to relocate the railway line running through the dense forest areas.

12 towers at 80 ft. height:

Kalidasan said, "Artificial Intelligence watch towers have been set up along the tracks to detect the movement of elephants near the tracks. The towers will send signals and alert the train operator about elephants approaching the tracks after which the operator will reduce the speed of the train to avoid any major accidents. What CM Stalin has done is a commendable act."

The Artificial Intelligence towers are 80 ft. high and they are placed in 12 different locations where there is a lot of elephant movements. The towers are equipped with state-of-the-art cameras with capacity to spot elephants accurately even from a distance.

The AI tool was trained by experts in the field who have collected all elephant related data which later was provided as input to the tool. The input of elephant related data such as the colour, height, width, sound made while moving etc. makes it difficult to elude the radar of the AI tool.

The old proverb is 'Yaanai varum pinne, mani osai varum munne' (the sound of the bell arrives before the elephant), the new AI tool will be the beginning of a new proverb 'Yaanai varum pinne, athan thagaval varum munne' (the information of elephant's arrival comes before the elephant itself).

"Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant - the only harmless great thing" - John Donne.