N. F. Railway on 20th March, 2023 signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RailTel Corporation of India Ltd, for installation of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to avert train-elephant collision and disaster mitigation measures. N. F. Railway has been taking many initiatives to prevent and detect movement of wild animals, especially elephants, approaching the tracks. Installation of IDS in important sections is one such of them.
The MoU was signed by G.R. Das, Chief Communication Engineer, N. F. Railway and Zakir Siddiqui, Executive Director/Eastern Region/Railtel in presence of Shri Anshul Gupta, General Manager/N. F. Railway and Shri Sanjay Kumar, Chief Managing Director/RailTel Corporation of India Ltd.
After 100% success of the pilot project on IDS that was undertaken by N.F. Railway in the Chalsa – Hasimara section of the Dooars area under Alipurduar Division in West Bengal and Lanka – Hawaipur section under Lumding Division in Assam, it has now been decided to install the system gradually in all other elephant corridors spread over N.F. Railway.
The system is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and existing optical fibres will be used as sensors to identify movements of wild animals at locations and alert control offices, station masters, gateman and loco pilots. It uses fibre optic based acoustic system working on the principle of dialysis scattering phenomenon to sense the real time presence of elephants on the track. The AI based software can monitor un-usual movements up to a stretch of 60 km. In addition to it the IDS will also help in detecting rail fracture, trespassing on railway track and alert about disaster mitigation due to unauthorised digging near railway tracks, landslides near tracks etc.
It is important to mention here that the pilot project has already been immensely successfully in saving lives of many elephants approaching railway track from being hit by trains.
