Guwahati, 17 October (HS): Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has been taking all necessary steps for the safety of wild elephants. In an incident on October 16, loco pilot JD Das and assistant loco pilot Umesh Kumar of train number 15959 Kamrup Express saw a herd of elephants crossing the railway track at km 166/8 – 167/0 between Hawaipur and Lamsakhang stations. The train was going from Guwahati to Lumding. This incident happened at around 08:37 pm. The alert loco pilot and assistant loco pilot applied emergency brakes and saved about 60 wild elephants from being hit by the train. NFR CPRO Kapinjal Kishore Sharma on Thursday informed that the train pilots were alerted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) which is implemented in this section. NFR has planned to gradually install Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in all other elephant corridors under its jurisdiction. This system has been very successful in saving the lives of many elephants who had entered the railway track earlier. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is an eco-sustainable solution to protect elephants and improve mobility of train operations. This system is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and uses existing optical fibres as sensors to identify wildlife at the relevant locations. After this, control offices, station masters, gatemen and loco pilots are alerted. It uses fibre optic based acoustic system working on the principle of Dialytic Scattering Phenomenon to give real time information about the presence of elephants on the track. The AI based software can monitor abnormal activities upto 40 km (i.e. total area of 80 km) on either side of the main unit. Apart from this IDS will also be helpful in detecting rail fractures, unauthorised entry on the track and alerting about disaster mitigation from unauthorised digging near the tracks, landslides near the tracks etc. Apart from IDS, NFR also ensures that the drivers of the trains get better visibility during operations by cutting the tall bushes and forest. NFR is taking various initiatives to prevent and detect the movement of wild animals especially elephants approaching the railway tracks. Several meetings have been held with the Forest Department and a joint action force was formed by Railway and Forest Department. NFR has rescued a total of 414 elephants during the calendar year 2023 and 383 elephants till October 16 this year.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash
