NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has introduced an innovative AI-driven measure to protect elephants and other wildlife animals from being hit by running trains.
This AI-enabled intrusion detection system (IDS) detects the presence of elephants and other wildlife animals on railway tracks using Distributed Acoustic Sensors (DAS) and immediately alerts the loco pilots about the close presence of animals along the rail tracks.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently informed the Upper House of Parliament about this system, reiterating the railway’s commitment for protection of elephants and other wild life animals.
Elucidating several protection measures taken by the railways in this regard, the minister said that the AI-enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS) has been developed and brought into use for detecting the presence of elephants on railway tracks using the Distributed Acoustic Sensor (DAS).
“The system components include Optical fibre, hardware and pre-installed signatures of elephants’ locations. The system alerts loco pilots, station masters and control room about the movement of elephants on track’s proximity, for taking preventive action," the minister informed the House.
Currently, as per the official record of the railway, the IDS is working over 141 km of railway routes on critical and highly vulnerable locations identified by forest department in Northeast Frontier Railway.
The minister said that the device being used by the railway has been found to work very effectively in the protection of elephants. “The works of IDS have been sanctioned for identified corridors for a total length of 1,158 km of rail routes with an estimated expenditure of Rs 208 crore incurring. The IDS will cover forest areas falling under the jurisdiction of Northern Railway, North Frontier Railway, ECOR, SR, SER, NER, WR and East Central Railway”, the minister said.
He also said that installation of this system is in progress over ECOR covering 349.4 km, Southern Railway (SR)’s 55.58 km and NER’s 36 km.
He also said that if any train hit an elephant in any zone, the zonal railway will investigate the matter in close coordination with the Forest department and will take immediate steps including the imposition of speed restrictions.
“The construction of underpasses and ramps for the movement of elephants at identified locations are also being done to ensure the safety of wildlife animals”, the minister said.
The Minister further added that as a result of several measures being taken on prevention of animals from being hit by trains, elephant deaths have reduced from 26 in 2013 to 12 in 2024.
Besides all this, the innovative Honey bee buzzer devices are also being used along the railway tracks to chase away elephants and other wild animals from railway tracks.
“The sound created by this device acts as a repellent to move elephants away from railway track”, said an official, adding that a thermal vision camera is also being tried for detecting the presence of wild animals on straight tracks during night or times of poor visibility, which will also alert the loco pilots of approaching trains.