Soon, the motorists who cut through the forested areas on Chalakudy-Anamala Road and Munnar-Bodinayakanur stretch will have the facility to get early warning of elephants on their path.
The authorities have decided to set up artificial intelligence (AI) based cameras around 47 locations along the Munnar-Bodinayakanur stretch and five elephant warning alarm systems that alert the motorists and local people in advance of any danger, on the Chalakudy Anamala Road, as part of reducing accidents and man-animal conflicts.
The project is an extension of the AI elephant detection programme piloted on an experimental basis to track the movement of wild elephants at Thumboormuzhy, near Athirapilly, jointly by the Forest department and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Dr. M. Rameshan, project officer, Conservation and Ecology, UNDP, said the feedback from the pilot project was encouraging and based on experience, mapping was done in these two stretches to identify the areas where elephants cross on a daily basis.
