Chhattisgarh Government has initiated High-tech monitoring of elephant movements in its forests. For this purpose, an artificial intelligence-based "Chhattisgarh Elephant Tracking and Alert App" was developed and has been functional for the past three months at the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve.

An alert of elephant activity within a 10-kilometre radius is successfully sent to the villager's registered mobile numbers. To send an alert, the villagers' mobile phone numbers and location data are stored in this app. When the elephant trackers record any elephant movement inputs on the app, the app sends alerts to the mobile phones of the villagers.

To inform people in Chhattisgarh's elephant-affected areas, the Wildlife Wing and Forest Management Information System (FMIS) collectively developed this app. This application uses artificial intelligence (AI) based on information provided by Elephant Trackers (Hathi Mitra Dal).

With the exception of "Munaadi," performed by elephant trackers, this app sends notifications to everyone in the affected village of the presence of elephants via calls, SMS, and WhatsApp messages.

This alert app has been functioning for the past three months and has 400 registered users in the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (Gariaband, Dhamtari).

The app can be used by other forest divisions as well by registering their corresponding villages. The Forest Management Information System (FMIS) and Wildlife Wing collectively developed this app. The app will be launched by Dr Lakshmi Dhruv, MLA Sihawa at Ecopark Mechka, USTR.

Working of the Alert App

Hathi Mitr Dal members use the open-source Vakya or speech app to feed information about the location, names of the herds, behaviours, and other traits of elephants. This app works both in online (real-time) and offline (near-real-time when trackers are out of a mobile network region) mode.

Mobile numbers and GPS locations registered on the app

The mobile phone numbers and GPS locations of the locals living in elephant-affected areas are registered in alert and tracking app. This is done so that the villagers can receive call, SMS, and WhatsApp notifications through AI alerts on a real-time basis and depend on the availability of the mobile network of elephant trackers whenever the elephant is less than 10 km from them.

The app credentials are provided only to the Forest Department officials and its volunteers (after approval from the Wildlife Wing) to avoid misuse of the app. Villagers must register their mobile phone numbers with GPS location with their respective beat guards or range office to make better use of the app.

Tracking other animals

Alerts & tracking app can track elephant route using time period filter, filter herds of elephants and track individual routes (like Sikasar Dal, Chanda Dal etc.).

This app can be used for sending alerts, for research, habitat development, planning as per requirement, and also to track the presence of other carnivores or omnivorous animals like leopards, sloth bears, myna, and wild buffaloes.