Tethered Drones Enhance Elephant Railway Safety
Tamil Nadu Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Corporation launched trial operations of three tethered drones from January 20, 2026, to surveil elephants near railway tracks in the Solakkarai reserve forest, Madukkarai range, Coimbatore. The tethered units, powered via ground cable with six-hour generator backup and flying at 100–150 feet with 30x200m zoom cameras, augment a February 2024 AI early-warning system and feed alerts to a control room to reduce collisions; TNUAVC will operate them for three years under an ₹8.3 crore project.
Key Points
- 1Deploys three tethered drones from Jan 20 to cover blind spots along A and B railway lines
- 2Provides continuous surveillance with 100–150 ft altitude, 30x200m zoom cameras, and generator backup
- 3Enables rapid alerts and deterrence, integrating with AI system to reduce elephant-train collisions
Scoring Rationale
Official, practical tethered-drone deployment with AI surveillance; regional pilot limits scalability and immediate industry-wide impact.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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