Chhattisgarh forest officer felicitated for use of AI-based elephant tracking app

Raipur: A Chhattisgarh-cadre Indian Forest Service officer has bagged the 'Eco Warrior Award 2024' for using an artificial intelligence-based tracking and alert application to prevent human-elephant conflicts, officials said on Sunday.

Varun Jain, deputy director of the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR) in Gariaband district, received the award in the "best use of technology in conservation" category at an event in Delhi last week, they said.

Jain and a USTR team developed the 'Chhattisgarh Elephant Tracking and Alert' application in association with the FMIS (Forest Management Information System) and wildlife wing.

They have been using the app at the reserve since February 2023.

Talking to PTI, Jain said the app serves as an early warning system by sending out alerts through phone calls, SMSes, and WhatsApp messages to people living in a 10 km radius whenever trackers on foot patrol detect the presence of tuskers.

The AI system identifies villages in a 10 km radius of the elephant herds and dispatches notifications through phone calls, voice messages, and text messages to residents, specifically people whose mobile numbers are linked to their names and GPS locations, he said.

Alerts are specifically sent to "kotwars" (village-level revenue personnel), panchayat members, and forest management committees, Jain said, adding that audio messages are also circulated as a warning.

The official claimed there have been no human-elephant conflicts in the USTR area since the launch of the app one and a half years ago.

Besides acting as a warning system, Jain said the app also facilitates the systematic collection and analysis of data, providing invaluable insights to make informed decisions about elephant corridors and habitat development and proactive measures to mitigate human-animal conflicts.

He pointed out that 15 forest divisions facing the elephant menace in the state have adopted the app, considerably reducing such conflicts.