A herd of wild elephants passes a railway track between Habaipur and Lamsakhang station in Assam on October 16. As per the NFR, the alertness of two loco pilots of the Kamrup Express as well as the AI-based IDS averted collision of the train with the herd. (Photo Courtesy: NFR)
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Maligaon, October 17 (MExN): The application of the emergency brake by alert Loco Pilot JD Das and Assistant Loco Pilot Umesh Kumar averted the collision of the 15959 Kamrup Express with a herd of elephants in Assam on October 16, stated the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) today.
According to an NFR release, the incident occurred at around 8:37 PM on Wednesday when the drivers noticed a herd of about 60 wild elephants crossing the railway track between Habaipur and Lamsakhang station.
The Kamrup Express was travelling from Guwahati towards Lumding.
The drivers were also alerted by the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) that has been in operation in that section, the NFR release noted, adding that plans are afoot to install the system gradually in all other elephant corridors throughout the zone.
As per the NFR, the AI-based IDS is an eco-sustainable solution to protect elephants and improve mobility in train operations that uses existing optical fibres as sensors to identify movements of wild animals at locations and alert control offices, station masters, gatemen, and loco pilots.
It also uses a fibre optic-based acoustic system working on the principle of the dialysis scattering phenomenon to sense the real-time presence of elephants on the track and can monitor unusual movements up to 40 km on either side of the main unit (80 km in total), it informed.
The IDS also helps in detecting rail fractures, trespassing on railway tracks, and alerting about disaster mitigation due to unauthorised digging near railway tracks, landslides near tracks, etc., it added.
The NFR has been taking various initiatives to prevent and detect the movement of wild animals, particularly elephants, approaching railway tracks and has conducted several meetings on the issue. A joint action force has been formed by the railways and the forest department, the release maintained.
During the calendar year of 2023, the NFR saved a total of 414 elephants and 383 until October 16, 2024, it added.
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