IIT Delhi helps reduce elephant accidents - Fusion - WeRIndia

Many times it makes the news that an elephant was run over by a train. Most of the times it causes a serious injury or death.

In just 2018, more than 20 elephants have died on railway tracks. Since elephants move slowly, they cannot evade the fast trains.

As a result, they are not able to cross the tracks before the train hits them.

For this reason, IIT-Delhi made the solution needed to solve this problem.

Subrat Kar, a professor at IIT-Delhi started working on this device to prevent elephant deaths due to train accidents in 2008.

It was in 2014 that his research got recognition and the Indian Railways offered him financial support with a grant of ₹30 lakhs. Now, his device is finally ready.

The device is fit on the railway tracks. It has sensors that can recognize visuals, movement, sound, lights and other parameters. Using that, it passes the information into an automated algorithm.

The algorithm can recognize if an elephant or a herd is near the tracks. The message would then be sent to the nearest station master who can inform the train drivers passing through that area.

There will be a warning light on the train which allows the driver to know that he/she needs to slow down.

The driver would receive the alert about three kilometers from where the animals are estimated to be crossing. That gives about three to four minutes to slow down or stop the train.

In this way, the animals are not restricted from roaming where they want and accidents can be prevented.

Professor Kar says that the sensors will be installed in many places soon. They are going to test the devices first in the monsoon season in 2019. Once the testing is complete, they can then install it in many places.

Image Reference: Thebetterindia