Samikhsya Bureau
The West Bengal Forest Department is exploring the possibility of a sensor-based technology to track the various sounds made by elephants to track their exact location. The move is a significant stride towards mitigating the problem of elephant deaths on railway tracks in north Bengal.
This will be the first time in the country that such a technology will be used, said a senior official of the Forest Department. He said that the high-frequency sounds made by an elephant are audible but they also make low-frequency sounds that are inaudible to the human ear; this is where the technology will help. The technology will use artificial intelligence to recognise such sound within a fixed radius. The trials will be held either in Gorumara or Mahananda National Park in September.
The Wildlife Institute of India will be making the technology analysis while the Forest Department will be providing field support. The official also said that if the technology is found to be effective, it will be integrated into the mobile communication used by train drivers so that they get SMS alerts on their phones.
It may be mentioned that the Forest Department has been trying to identify a cost-effective technology to prevent deaths of pachyderms on railway tracks of north Bengal.
Given the rising incidents in recent past in Odisha where so many wild elephants met untimely death due to accidents on railway tracks, the Forest & wildlife department in Odisha cal also emulate what its neighbour is going to do. In Odisha, deaths of wild elephants whether due to getting run over by trains or electrocution usually hog the headlines but so far little has been done to arrest the casualties.
(with UNI inputs)
