A five-year GPS study has mapped elephant movement corridors and key habitats across Assam, while artificial-intelligence-based railway alerts and other protection measures helped avert 257 potential train-elephant collisions between January and September 2026, according to officials.
The findings were released by Assam forest minister Jayanta Mallabaruah at the 72nd Wildlife Week event in Guwahati on Tuesday. The study, titled “Tracking the Giants: Movement and Habitat-Use Patterns of GPS-Collared Elephants in Assam”, was conducted by the Assam Forest Department and WWF-India between 2021 and 2026.
Researchers generated more than 38,000 GPS locations while tracking four female-led herds and one solitary male elephant in Udalguri, Sonitpur and Biswanath districts. The study identified Sonai Rupai, Behali and Bornadi wildlife sanctuaries as important elephant habitats. It also found that tea plantations functioned as movement pathways and secondary habitats.
The GPS data showed that elephant movement changes with the seasons. Female-led herds expanded their home ranges during the paddy-cropping season, a period that coincided with increased human-elephant conflict. Archita Baruah Bhattacharyya, state director for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh at WWF-India, said elephants also used river channels to travel north-south between forests along the Himalayan foothills and the grasslands and chaporis of the Brahmaputra.
The study also recorded dry-season movement between Udalguri and Bhutan’s adjoining Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary. Bhattacharyya said the finding pointed to the need for greater coordination between the two countries to secure wildlife corridors used by elephants.
The railway figures released alongside the study cover four Northeast Frontier Railway divisions. The highest number of potential collisions averted was recorded in the Lumding division, with 122 cases, followed by Alipurduar with 106, Tinsukia with 15 and Rangiya with 14. Mallabaruah said the figures referred to situations in which alerts and coordinated action prevented possible collisions, rather than conventional wildlife rescues.
Northeast Frontier Railway has deployed AI-based Intrusion Detection Systems on vulnerable stretches. The systems use distributed acoustic sensing technology to detect vibrations and acoustic signatures associated with elephant movement. Real-time alerts are then sent to locomotive pilots, station masters and control rooms, allowing trains to be slowed, stopped or regulated.
The railway’s Plan Bee system is also being used at elephant-prone locations. It produces amplified honeybee sounds, which elephants tend to avoid, to discourage them from approaching railway tracks. Officials said these systems are supplemented by night-time and temporary speed restrictions, ground patrolling, cautionary signage, vegetation management and underpasses.
Information-sharing with forest officials and the sensitisation of railway personnel and train crews are also part of the protection measures. Principal chief conservator of Forests-Wildlife and chief wildlife warden Vinay Gupta said the study addressed a major knowledge gap on elephant movement in Assam. WWF-India’s Elephant Conservation Programme lead Aritra Kshettry said the telemetry data provided an evidence base for securing elephant habitats and routes and managing human-elephant conflict.
