Can a Sensor Save India's Elephants from Trains?

An elephant crossing a railroad track

In the past five years, India has lost nearly 100 elephants in train-related accidents. In addition, 26 elephants have been killed so far in 2018 alone with the most recent incident having occurred in Odisha's Kendujhar district where an elephant succumbed to its injuries after being hit by a goods train. However, there now appears to be a ray of hope in this issue with a recent news about Subrat Kar, a professor from IIT-Delhi's electrical engineering department, who has invented a sensor device that is currently being put to test. It is hoped that this device would be set up along railroad tracks frequented by elephants and prevent their deaths by train collision. Professor Kar has been working on this sensor for close to ten years in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and financed by Indian Railways and the Department of Science and Technology. The sensor was first tested inside the IIT-Delhi campus with satisfying results, and is now scheduled to be tested in real conditions. The sensor can detect the elephants' movement from a distance through a collection of built-in devices. These devices include a vibration detector which captures heat rays from the elephants, a camera to identify them, and lasers which have all these. Once the elephants' movement is detected, it would send a signal to the nearest railroad station and the message is sent to the train driver conveying him to slow down the train. The devices also authenticate whether the moving animals are actually elephants and not any other, which can cross the railroad tracks without needing to slow down the train. Professor Kar indicated that the sensors would be installed in sensitive spots, where there are paths that elephants use in order to detect them. He further added that Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand has been chosen as the test deployment site for these sensors.

An elephant family

I find this news to be very hopeful and promising for both elephants and people. Elephants in India have been under constant threat of getting hit by trains running through their habitats and dying as a result. But the invention of this special sensor sheds a light of hope in mitigating such incidences. I really hope that these sensors will be deployed in areas with railroad tracks, where elephant activity is frequent. Installing these devices in such areas will help everyone know their effectiveness. At the same time, I believe focus should be put in mitigating human-elephant conflicts across India especially in places where elephants are venturing into human settlements resulting in attacks on both sides. Just as there is a device designed to prevent elephants from getting killed by trains, I firmly believe that extensive research is required in developing a similar invention to help in preventing human-elephant conflicts. These animals are part of India's culture and heritage, and losing them to any form of anthropogenic pressure would be a devastating blow to the country.

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