banarhat: At least two persons have been arrested after the early elephant warning system — installed near railway tracks to detect the presence of elephants — were stolen.
A gang of thieves had vandalised and stolen the sensors of the alarm systems installed parallel to the railway tracks. The police recovered most of the stolen items within two days of the theft.
“13 sensor modules with poles were stolen from the area adjacent to Banarhat Hindi College on February 21. A police team led by SI Mahendra Tamang of Binnaguri outpost has already recovered 13 sensor modules, 14 solar panels, 9 batteries, 5 iron poles and other stolen items,” stated Kushang Tshering Lepcha, Officer-in-Charge, Binnaguri outpost.
Hemant Oraon and Ganesh Lohar, residents of Haldibari tea garden, were arrested. Investigation into the case is underway. The accused were produced at the Jalpaiguri Court on Friday.
The early warning alarm system ‘EleSense’ had been installed and inaugurated on January 13. In this system, sensors are installed on poles parallel to the railway lines. When an elephant passes between two poles - four separate sensors in the sensor module detect the height of the elephant, its body temperature, and the nature of movement and identify the elephants correctly through artificial intelligence. After that, an alert (warning message) reaches the train driver.
As many as 4 sensors were installed in the area adjacent to Dharnipur tea Garden in Nagrakata block, 20 sensors in the area adjacent to Moraghat Hindi College in Banarhat block and 20 others were installed between Debpara and Redbank tea gardens on both sides of the railway track.
In the past, there have been several incidents of elephants being hit by trains while crossing railway lines in
these areas.
These sensors are able to accurately detect an elephant when it comes within 150 meters of the railway line.