From healthcare to education and transportation, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming many industries. Recently, an AI camera averted a major train accident that killed or seriously injured three elephants that were on the tracks in Rourkela Forest Division in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
According to a post by retired Indian Forest Service officer Sushant Nanda, an AI camera captured the elephants walking towards the railway line and alerted the forest department’s control room, after which the train was stopped. The viral video shows two adult elephants and a calf.
“AI camera captures and zooms in on elephants approaching railway line, sends alert to control room to stop train. We had solutions. Glad to see implemented now yielding results. These 4 cameras on track were part of mitigation measures,” Nand wrote on X .
“From its site specific wildlife conservation scheme funded by RSP, it was implemented on a pilot basis in Rourkela Forest Division. Keonjhar and Bonai Forest Divisions are in the pipeline to scale up this initiative. A win-win situation for all,” he wrote in another thread.
See here:
An AI camera captures and zooms in on elephants approaching the railway line, sending an alert to the control room to stop the train.
We had solutions. Glad to see that those implemented are now yielding results. These 4 cameras on the track were part of mitigation measures. pic.twitter.com/RBNe0hPOnl— Sushant Nanda (@susantananda3) December 8, 2024
The video gained instant traction, garnering over 229,000 views and many reactions. “Great to see, good use of technology. Maybe in the future we can use this technology to detect poachers.” Another user commented, “Awesome. We need to expand this useful technology to more places.”
“Nice to see technology being used for a good cause and saving lives,” responded a third user.
In May, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department installed at least 12 towers with AI cameras on two train tracks in Madukkarai to prevent fatal train accidents, BBC News reported.