NEW DELHI: The Railways is working closely with experts to develop an AI-driven high-powered camera system to capture images of wild animals such as elephants and lions when they cross railway tracks or remain in close proximity, even at deep night.
Once developed, the AI-enabled cameras will be able to capture images from half a kilometre away of wildlife animals, or their movement towards rail lines in forest areas earmarked as elephant ranges and tiger ranges, respectively, and send them to loco pilots.
The initiative aims to prevent wildlife from being run over by trains, particularly in elephant and tiger corridors and forested regions. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday, while sharing this information with the media, said that the cameras, after being fully developed, would be fixed on the top of locomotives.
By October, some concrete development on the installation of such cameras will be ready. In addition to this, the Railways has already laid Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) along railway tracks in several areas that fall within elephant and tiger corridors. This system enables instant alerts from a considerable distance whenever elephants, in particular, are detected moving towards the tracks.