TN forest dept proposes AI-based system to stop elephant deaths on railway tracks near Coimbatore

The Tamil Nadu forest department has proposed to implement an AI-based system to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks that pass through the Bolampatti reserved forest in the Coimbatore forest division.

The Tamil Nadu forest department proposed to initiate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based system for preventing elephant deaths on railway tracks in the Madukkarai forest range of the Coimbatore forest division.

The Coimbatore forest division, with an extent of 694 square kilometres, has an estimated elephant population of around 363 elephants in the area. Two railway tracks pass through Bolampatti Block I Reserved Forests in the area, which are prone to elephant conflicts.

"The Railway tracks (two tracks, “A” and “B” lines) from Coimbatore (Pothanur) to Palakkad is one of the busiest sections in the Southern Railways of Palakkad division. The two tracks separate at 504 km and track - A enters the Reserve Forest between 506-507 km, runs for a distance of 1.8 km and exits the reserve forests at 508 km,” stated the proposal by the state forest department.

TN Forest Dept has floated the Request for proposals for setting up a state of the art Artificial Intelligence based monitoring system for preventing elephant deaths on Railway tracks in Madhukkarai in Coimbatore Dist.We are determined to stop this tragedy https://t.co/WtKk33GEzL pic.twitter.com/lZD2cAmrCT

It further reads, “Track - B enters the Reserve Forest at 505 A km, runs for a distance of 2.8 km and exits at 507 km. The elephant habitat of about 200 Ha lies between tracks A & B. Hence, the elephants that cross tracks A & B frequently and are subject to the risk of collision by trains."