Since 2012, August 12 has been celebrated as ‘World Elephant Day’ as a step to call attention to the conservation of the largest animal in the world. The issues faced by Indian and African elephants range from poaching, habitat loss and human-elephant convicts. This has even led to their extinction in some regions.

India is home to the largest number of Asiatic elephants accounting for nearly 60% of the jumbo population. However, even after being the home to over 32 elephant reserves, the population of the animal in India is declining, and human activities are blamed for it.

Train hits are the second biggest cause of unnatural elephant deaths in India after electrocution. According to India Times, while 741 elephants were killed after coming into contact with live wires, 186 jumbos lost their lives on railway tracks. 

In 2022, Tamil Nadu Forest Department had sought the aid of AI to conserve and prevent elephant accidents. This year, Indian Railways introduced AI-based ‘Gajraj’ to prevent elephant deaths on tracks. This surveillance system will be installed on 700 KM of route passing through forest areas.

Announcing the introduction of the Gajraj system, the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw remarked that they have identified forest areas in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand and some parts of Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu which are home to elephants.

The technology developed by the railroads in association with a few start-ups, was implemented on a 150 KM section of Assam last year and has shown to be very valuable.

Meet Gajraj

The Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw opines that the AI-based surveillance system can alert loco pilots well in time about the presence of elephants on tracks. The implementation cost of the project on the 700-km tracks will be ₹181 crore. 

The minister stated that they have made some improvements in the system based on their field experience and now it detects the presence of elephants on tracks with 99.5 percent accuracy. Elephants had been saved up to this point with the aid of this technology. The officials are also working with the forest department to identify the scope of the project.

In September this year, the Northeast Frontier railway had hailed the system and said its introduction of 11 elephant corridors in the Northeast aided in the elimination of elephant deaths due to train accidents. Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) introduced the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in December 2022 in 11 elephant corridors – five in Alipurduar division and six in Lumding division.

Working of the system

Every time an elephant steps on to the track, the system generates an alert to the train controller, station master, train drivers and other stakeholders who take preventive measures to avoid the imminent danger. 

The data collected by the government states that an average 20 elephants die due to train collisions in the country every year and a majority of these incidents take place in the Northeast Frontier Railway. Officials behind the project hope that the success of the project will prevent such damages.

The optical fiber cable that the railway has laid beneath the tracks for tele-communication and signaling purposes is valuable for the installation of IDS. The device, fitted in the OFC network, captures the vibration when an elephant comes on the track and sends out a real-time alert to the division control room and a mobile application. The system is able to detect and locate moving elephants up to 5 meters from the fiber optical cable.