AI-based alert system coming up in parts of Bengal to minimise man-elephant conflicts

Kolkata: An artificial intelligence-based, real-time alert system is being implemented in various parts of West Bengal to minimise man-elephant conflicts, Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy said.

Steps have been taken to keep the jumbos off rail tracks in the Dooars belt in the northern part of the state, and drive the herds away from human settlements in forest areas of Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia in the south.

As part of the detection system, with the help of AI, images of elephants are captured and automatically analysed, and based on the feedback, precautionary measures are taken to ward off straying herds from human settlements, Roy told PTI. “The project has already yielded success in Jhargram district,” he said.

Roy said a 34-km-long pilot project from Alipurduar to Falakata in the Dooars belt has been implemented with fibre optic cable laid along rail tracks to stop elephants from coming near moving trains. The real-time transmitted data will be received by the forest department App on mobile phones.

The fibre optic network will be extended till Siliguri in the coming days, Roy said.

It is part of a bigger project by a Japanese agency to avert man-animal conflict in other forest areas.

A number of forest officials from the beat ranger level will be connected through the app in both north and south Bengal, where reports of elephants straying into human settlements have been reported.

The forest department has also been undertaking an electric fencing project in which electric shock lasting a few seconds, not endangering their health, will make elephants stick to their routes, Roy said. He said part of the project to facilitate clear passage of the jumbo movement will be implemented by the end of 2024.

Days back, two villagers were killed when a wild elephant trampled them to death after its calf died while crossing a rivulet and fell into a sand ditch on the river bed in Jhargram district.