Jharkhand to introduce AI-based elephant alert system along Chhattisgarh border

RANCHI: Jharkhand is all set to introduce an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Elephant Alert System in regions bordering Chhattisgarh. According to officials, states first AI-based camera hooter system will be installed near Rajabasa village under the Chakulia Range of Jamshedpur Forest Division as a pilot project. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Saba Alam Ansari informed that it will be Jharkhands first such AI-powered hooter system designed to detect elephants entering a particular area automatically and alert the villages by sounding the hooter. As soon as an elephant enters the visibility rage of the AI-based cameras, the hooter will sound automatically, alerting villagers to protect their families, and livestock, said the DFO. This will be first such project in Jharkhand on the lines of Chhattisgarh, he added. The DFO further added that the entire system is solar-powered and can be monitored in real time through a laptop or mobile app, even during power cuts. As of now, five cameras will be installed covering the village from all sides, he said. Looking at the success of this project, it will be expanded to other elephant prone areas, including Ghatshila, Potka and Bodam ranges, said the DFO. The AI-based hooter system will not only reduce damage to the life and property but also mark a major step toward ensuring peaceful human-elephant coexistence in Jharkhand, he added. Besides alerting the villagers, the forest department teams will also receive an alert message to remain cautious. The system will also allow authorised forest officials to control it remotely. These AI-based cameras will sound the hooter by only if an elephant or a herd of elephants comes into its visibility range and will ignore if any other animal or human being crosses by it, said Ansari. According to sources in forest department, the hooter system will sound alerts in two phases; firstly, when elephants are four kilometres away, the siren will sound for 20 seconds and secondly, when they reach within the range of two kilometres, a louder siren will sound for 40 seconds, so that the villagers to go to a safer place. Notably, Chakulia Forest Range, under Kolhan region of Jharkhand, is an elephant prone zone, having more than 15-20 elephants at a time which sometimes goes to 35-40 after the influx of elephants from neighbouring West Bengal. The region witnesses frequent man-animal conflicts resulting to significant loss of life. Due to frequent wandering of elephants, Chakradharpur (CKP) Division under South Eastern Railways is also to installed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Elephant Intrusion Detection System (EIDS) soon to protect elephants being mowed down by the speeding trains. This system detects the presence of elephants around the rail tracks and inform the loco pilots on time. The Intrusion Detection System, for which a successful trail was completed recently along the Barabamboo-Chakradharpur-Lotapahar section, detects the presence of elephants around the rail track and informs the loco pilots on time so that they can slow down the speeding train. This system will operate through fiber optics and sensors. This step will prove to be very crucial in Kolhan region, where a large number of elephants cross railway tracks on regular basis and many of them are hit be trains and get killed.