A safety system driven by artificial intelligence (AI) helped stop a train in Assam while a herd of elephants were crossing the tracks at night.
On October 16, the train driver JD Das and his assistant Umesh Kumar of Kamrup Express saw a herd of elephants crossing the railway tracks between Hawaipur and Lamsakhang stations at 8.30 pm. The train was going from Guwahati to Lumding.
On seeing the elephants, they applied emergency brakes and saved some 60 wild elephants from colliding with the train.
The two men were first alerted by the AI-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) implemented in this section of the railway tracks.
The East Central railways plans to gradually install this system in all other elephant corridors under its jurisdiction. This system has been successful in saving the lives of elephants that entered railway tracks in the past.
The East Central railways saved the lives of 414 elephants in 2023, and 383 elephants till October 16 this year since January.
