Bengaluru: In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), wildlife conservation is not behind in making use of the modern technology as Bandipur Tiger Reserve has embarked upon a project to detect and monitor jumbos using AI-powered cameras will initially begin from Omkar range of Bandipur National Park in order to mitigate man-animal encounters.The idea of AI powered cameras is to detect elephants at least 50-meters before it crosses the forest area to enter agricultural fields to graze on crops and alert forest personnel to drive the elephant/herds back to the forest and alert farmers/villagers to take timely action.Earlier efforts of the Tiger Reserve officials to dig elephant proof trenches, solar fencing, rail barricading among others measures met with little success.The AI powered cameras project in Bandipur has been taken-up by members of Adavi Alert Foundation by joining hands with Advitiya Labs and Nikon India Private Limited to develop AI-powered camera systems to detect and track elephants in conflict prone zones in association with Karnataka Forest Department.With the AI-powered cameras, a source associated with the project told Deccan Chronicle on Saturday the cameras will alert forest personnel to track the elephant and help them in driving the animal to remain inside the forest areas.”We are working on the project and it will take about 3-months before the project gets going in Bandipur to mitigate man-animal conflict situations, ” said the source.As of now, the project is working in a unit on placement of cameras along the boundaries among other factors to prevent elephants from straying out of the reserve. The Omkar range was chosen since the range records high man-animal conflicts followed by others and the observations of the project in Omkar range, this technology will be further improved and extended to other ranges.As many as 19 villages fall in the close vicinity of the Omkar range and elephants often stray out of the reserve to raid agricultural crops and some other led to human deaths/casualties.Advitiya Labs, as the technology partner, is working on the ground to create a prototype of the Artificial Intelligence model while Nikon India Private Limited, as the equipment partner, is contributing by providing high-quality images that will help train AI systems to recognize elephants more accurately.A wildlife activist said elephants often die owing to electrocution when they stray into the fields to graze on crops and if elephants are stopped inside the forest area then lives of elephants could be saved.The project, according to sources, exude confidence the AI-powered cameras will promote peaceful co-existence between humans and elephants.
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