AI-fit cameras in Similipal Tiger Reserve send poaching plummeting Premium

TrailGuard AI, a system with AI-enabled cameras, helps reduce poaching in Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, leading to arrests.

“Last year, we lost two of our men to poachers,” Samrat Gowda, deputy director of the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, said. “Every time we come across them, the poachers are armed with a loaded gun.”

But such encounters have become much less common of late. As part of an early alert system called TrailGuard AI, the Similipal Tiger Reserve was fitted with 100-150 cameras loaded with an artificial intelligence (AI) model. The cameras relay images of people and wildlife entering the forest to the model, which looks for the presence of poachers among them.

“Earlier, we didn’t know when poachers entered. Now we have clear information about the area the poachers are in, so our people are prepared,” Gowda said.

In the last 10 months, TrailGuard AI has helped wildlife officials at Similipal arrest 96 poachers and seize more than 86 country-made guns. In December alone, the team arrested over 40 poachers.

“House raids based on photo identification have given very good results,” according to Gowda. “If this trend continues, I’m hopeful poaching can be reduced by at least 80%. Once that happens, naturally, our people will be safer, along with the forest and wildlife.”

The AI-enabled cameras are tucked away in the reserve’s thick vegetation. They operate on a low-power mode by default but switch to a high-power mode when they sense movement, and capture an image. The camera then performs AI inference on the edge, meaning it uses the chip inside to sort between various object classes such as ‘animals’, ‘humans’, and ‘vehicles’ in the image. If the AI deems it necessary, it autonomously transmits an image using the cellular system attached to the camera to an end-user in 30-40 seconds.

“We have set up a control room in our headquarters, with a big screen, where we are alerted whenever there is a photo update,” Gowda said. “We then immediately transmit the information on our WhatsApp groups and VHF radio.”