An early warning system that will help prevent human-elephant conflict is being installed in forest villages of north Bengal, which often witness elephant depredation.

The forest department has already installed 16 automated elephant tracking devices at the Ramsai Kalipur beat in the Gorumara National Park, while eight such devices will be set up around the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary on an experimental basis.

Siliguri-based Koustav Choudhury and electronics engineer Simu Saha have developed the device that will alert the people living on the forest fringes of the movement of elephants. The device will be used on a pilot basis to curb such conflict.

Forest department officials said the device would be installed at other places too if the trial runs are successful.

Mr Choudhury and Mr Saha represent an organization, Society for Nature & Animal Protection (SNAP).

“In a bid to mitigate manelephant conflict, protect the crops, and minimise the damages, we have developed an automated elephant tracking device. Sixteen devices have been installed at eight hotspots, including forest villages and fringes under the Ramsai-Kalipur beat of Gorumara. Work is underway to install 24 more devices and it will be completed soon, while eight will be installed in the villages of Mahananda,” said Mr Choudhury, the president of the SNAP. It is learnt that four devices will be set up at New Chamta and four more at Punding, near the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary.

Elephant depredation on village areas is common in some districts of north Bengal. The jumbos generally raid paddy and maize fields in between June and September.

Each device has four combinational sensors, and a micro controller assembly that make them a single device.

“The device is fitted to an around 12 feet tall iron pole. The device will be able to track and detect the movement whenever an elephant comes within a 200-meter radius of the pole, while an alert will be sent to the beat office. If the area is located at least 2 km from the place, the siren will buzz from the office,” he added. The device comes with a solar-powered 12-volt battery fitted in it.

The organisation started conducting a survey to identify the hotspots in December last year. Mapping and identification of conflictprone areas were undertaken by the secretary of the organisation, Pradyut Roy, and zoologist Manisha Singha Roy, with the assistance of the forest department, and the process of the installation started from May.