Northeast Frontier Railway uses AI to prevent elephants getting hit by trains

In its AI-based software, alerts are issued in case any suspicious traffic is detected on the tracks

In a first, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is using Artificial Intelligence to monitor and protect wild elephants from getting hit by trains, a common occurrence in Assam.

In its AI-based software using optical fibre cable (OFC), the NFR relies on the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), wherein alerts are issued in case any suspicious traffic is detected, as per a report in The New Indian Express. The NFR commenced this monitoring process in August with only 11 of the 86 elephant corridors and since then, no accidents have been reported in the 70 km stretch.

"When there is an elephant movement on or alongside a railway track, it creates vibration, causing variations in the optical signals being carried in these OFCs. The disturbance in the signals is the signature. Our AI-based software detects the changes in the optical signals to sense the presence of elephants," NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Sabyasachi De told the publication.

Owing to the success of the pilot project, this will be expanded to the remaining 75 corridors in the jurisdiction.

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"This software can tell us exactly whether the movement is that of an elephant, other animals or even human. It can also specifically tell the distance where the movement has been detected. Any mammal which walks on land has a specific movement signature. The AI-based software has been trained to even detect the number of animals at a site," said De.

The loco pilot, those in the control room and the section station master receive alerts raised upon detection of any movement.

"Normally, we restrict the speed of trains wherever there is an elephant corridor. The loco pilots are advised to move cautiously in the elephant corridors irrespective of the presence of elephants at that time. Now, they will know the exact movement of the elephants beforehand and control train speeds accordingly. This system has solved the root of jumbo deaths on tracks," added De.

On the tracks where the IDS brain centres have been installed, a movement as far as 35 km can be detected both along the front and back of the tracks while the OFC is capable of detecting vibration up to 15-20 meters away.

De also added that using the detection mechanism, thousands of alerts are received on a daily basis, all of them accurate.

The problem of elephants getting hit by trains has been prevalent in Assam with as many as 120 elephants dying due to such collisions between 1990 and 2022 in the areas under the NFR.

This technology has not yet been used anywhere in the world to prevent such collisions making the NFR’s initiative one of a kind.