Honey bee buzzers, Intrusion Detection System to prevent wildlife deaths by trains: Vaishnaw

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The Indian Railways has taken up various measures in close coordination with the forest department so that no harm is caused to wild animals during train operations, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written statement in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Some of the innovative measures include honey bee buzzer device and AI enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS), he said.

Vaishnaw responded to questions raised by BRS MP Parthasaradhi Reddy, who wanted to know whether the government has taken into cognizance of wild animal deaths on railway tracks leading to long halts of service and passenger trains.

Highlighting various measures such as imposition of suitable speed restrictions in identified locations of animal corridors, regular meetings with concerned forest officials to update and sensitize the train crew and station master for alertness and awareness, clearance of vegetation and edible items surrounding the track within railway land etc., Vaishnaw said, “Elephant trackers are also installed/ engaged by Forest department which give timely alert to station master for further communication to loco pilots." Construction of underpasses and ramps for the movement of elephants at identified locations, provision of fencing along the track etc. were other measures that the minister referred to.

“Installation of innovative Honey bee buzzer device at crossing locations in elephant corridor areas to prevent the movement of wild animals/ Elephants near Railway tracks have been done. This device acts as a repellent to move away elephants from track and 96 such Honey bee buzzers are operational in various locations of Northeast Frontier Railway,” Vaishnaw said.

He added, “Thermal vision camera has also been developed for detecting presence of wild animals on straight track during night/poor visibility which alerts loco pilots for presence of wild animals. LED lights with solar system are also provided in forest area near track to prevent entry of elephants.” Talking about the installation of Optical Fiber Cable based Distributed Acoustic Sensors (DAS) also known as AI enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for detecting presence of elephants/ wild animals on track or nearby track at identified corridor locations, the minister said, “This system helps to get advance intimation regarding movement of elephants/ wild animals for taking timely action and transmitting alerts to loco pilots, station master and control room.” “The development and effectiveness of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a continuous and ongoing process and RDSO is working to further improve system functionality and reliability. So far, the above system has been installed in about 54 Route Km length of Northeast Frontier Railway. Further, a work of installation of this system in various zonal railways has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 208 crore,” he added. PTI JP AS AS