State forest minister Dr M Mathiventhan said AI-enabled surveillance system has been launched along the A and B railway lines that pass through Solakarai beat of Madukkarai forest range in the Coimbatore forest division for seven kilometres to prevent elephant deaths on the tracks.

He said the two railway tracks were passing through Solakarai beat and Boluvampatti block-I reserve forests, where 11 elephants had died after being hit by trains in the Madukkarai forest range since 2008.

“Despite the sincere efforts by the forest staff and watchers deployed to patrol along the railway lines and various measures, including creation of underpasses for elephants, we were not able to drastically reduce elephant deaths on the tracks,” he said.

He said the AI-enabled surveillance system was set up along the railway lines in the Madukkarai forest range at a cost of Rs 7.24 crore to monitor the movement of elephants round the clock and effectively track them along the tracks to completely avoid their deaths on the tracks.

“The forest department and railway officials will work together to prevent accidents based on the data generated by the AI-enabled surveillance system. The data will also help study elephant behaviour and profile individual elephants for future decision making,” Mathiventhan said.

The officials said around 130 trains were passing through the A and B railway lines daily. “Nearly, 1,000 elephant crossings are reported on these tracks every year.

The AI-based surveillance system features five towers along the A line and another seven towers along the B line, each at a distance of 500 metres. Each tower has twin 360-degree rotatable thermal night vision cameras, which will provide clear visuals for a distance of 900 metres,” an official statement said.