NFR installs acoustic-based tech to prevent jumbo deaths by train hits

GUWAHATI, Jan 04: Northeast Frontier Railway has installed an acoustic-based technology in two of its divisions to prevent the death of elephants by speeding trains on the tracks, a senior official said on Wednesday.

            NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta told PTI that this is the first time in the world that the technology has been used by any railway for saving the collision of jumbos with trains.

            The lives of over 400 pachyderms have been saved in the last six months after the first installation was done in Lumding division, the official said.

            "We developed the software and hardware in association with a private firm and installed the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for the first time in a 60 km stretch of elephant corridor in Lumding," Gupta said.

            Explaining the technology, the senior official said that IDS uses the existing optical fibre along the tracks to capture the sound of the heavy footsteps of pachyderms when jumbos approach the tracks.   

            Once the sound is captured by the cables, the acoustic signal is sent to the control room.

            "The software then differentiates the sound of the footsteps of elephants from other noise through artificial intelligence. It then analyses the sound and sends alerts to the station masters informing the exact location of the animals," Gupta said.

            Alipurduar in West Bengal is the second place under NFR where IDS has been installed in a 60 km stretch on the tracks a few days ago, Gupta said in an interview.

            "In the last six months, the system detected movements of 400-500 elephants on the track and they have been saved eventually. Now, we are targeting to instal this technology in the entire 400 km of elephant corridor under the NFR," he added.      

            This particular technology has not been used by any railway in the world to protect wildlife so far and NFR is the first to experiment with the application, Gupta claimed.

            "The acoustic-based technology is widely used by the oil sector to detect leakages. In Germany, this is used for real-time tracking of trains," he added.

            Since April 2022, five elephants have been killed by speeding trains on the tracks, while around 1,200 jumbos were saved by the drivers in this fiscal, Gupta said.

            The NFR, he said, will use this acoustic-based IDS technology to monitor landslides, river erosion and other natural calamities along its tracks. PTI