The AI-based monitoring system, deployed at Madukkarai range of Coimbatore Forest Division last year to enable safe movement of elephants and prevent tusker-deaths on railway tracks has enabled 5260 wild elephants safely cross the train tracks for more than 1000 times, a report stated. 

Two railway tracks pass through Sulakarai beat and Bolampatti Block - I Reserved Forests in Madukkarai Range.  According to a report more than 100 trains passby these tracks. Since this forest area shares its boundary with Kerala forests along the Walayar river, elephants regularly visit the region.

In the past, many unfortunate incidents involving elephants took place, and in spite of various efforts it could not be drastically reduced. Hence the Government consulted with experts and decided to implement Artificial Intelligence-enabled autonomous surveillance system to monitor the movement of elephants 24x7 and effectively track them  along the tracks, so that accidents could be avoided completely.

After conducting field investigation, the most vulnerable stretch of 7 Kms of Railway track was identified for implementing the project. The A.I.based monitoring system was launched Sulakarai beat in Madukkarai range of Coimbatore Forest Division back in Feb 2024.

The system includes 12 high towers fitted with both thermal and normal cameras, installed at strategic locations along the track in the Bolampatti Block - 1 Forests, 500m apart from each other covering all the important elephant crossing areas, giving 150m coverage on either side of the track for early detection of animal movement. 

The sensed data is automatically transferred to the control room that processes the data collected from the field on real time basis. The front line staffs of forest department along with technical team are available at the control room on shift basis to monitor the animal movement and inform the loco pilots of Railways through calls, SMS and alerts.

In addition to that hooters and digital display alerts are also placed on the tracks for the loco pilots (train operators) to see and act well in advance in the event of any animal presence along the two tracks. The Forest department and the railway official's work in sync to prevent accidents based on information generated by Artificial Intelligence.

The generated data not only helps in preventing accidents, it gives valuable details on elephants' movements and behaviour, profiling of individual elephant and further morphological and behavioural studies for future decision making.

From the period of installation to May 2025, the system has enabled 5260 wild elephants to safely cross the Madukkarai train tracks 1,278 times. No deaths occurred thanks to this tech-based solution... and it does not stop just there. 22 deers, 9 leopards besides other wild species too crossed safely during this period.