India tests whether AI can stop trains hitting elephants
(2026/03/16)
- Reference: 1773622653
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/16/asia_tech_news_roundup/
- Source link:
India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change last week staged a two-day national workshop titled “Policy Implementation for Minimizing Elephant Mortalities on Railway Track” – and one of the ideas discussed was using AI to protect the beasts and workers.
“Another promising intervention is the AI-based early-warning system deployed at Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu, which uses a network of 12 tower-mounted cameras equipped with thermal and motion-sensing technology,” according to a government [1]announcement about the workshop. “The system detects elephant movement within 100 metres of railway tracks and automatically alerts forest and railway officials, enabling trains to slow down and allowing elephants to cross safely.”
Another technology called the “Distributed Acoustic System (DAS)-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS)” is already in place across 64.03 km of elephant corridors and 141 km of railway block sections in Assam. India’s East Coast Railway will adopt that system soon.
[2]
The government statement also refers to field surveys, which identified hundreds of locations where bridges, underpasses, or fences, can do the job. No AI required.
[3]
[4]
Independent of the elephantine AI announcements, India’s railways last week [5]revealed they’re using AI to help with maintenance and operational resilience.
SAP expands Japanese cloud
SAP last week [6]announced the availability of a Japanese version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, for retail, fashion, and vertical business.
The ERP giant said it unleashed the offering after its local partner One Isle Consulting secured verification it complies with local laws.
SAP expects its new product will find favor among “rapidly growing retail and fashion companies, as well as companies challenging new business models.”
South Korea launches ‘K-Science’ innovation plan
South Korea’s government last week launched a national R&D plan, and branded elements of the scheme “K-science.”
The overall plan includes familiar goals such as ensuring local industry can develop products the world wants to buy, keeps up with developments in AI, and ensuring continued strength in semiconductors.
[7]
The K-Science element is an effort to tap the nation’s strength, and culture, to develop ideas and products that could only come from South Korea.
The Register looks forward to K-Science Demon Hunters hitting Netflix real soon now.
[8]Beijing warns of more chip supply worries after Nexperia China claims it was cut off from SAP
[9]AWS Middle East disrupted after ‘objects struck datacenter’ amid Iran war
[10]Infosys chair says AI will clean up legacy systems – then make more of them
[11]US appears open to reversing some China tech bans
Lenovo scores big Blackwell cluster in Oz
Lenovo last week announced it built a 1,000-GPU cluster for Australian neocloud Sharon AI.
The Chinese company said the gig is its biggest-ever infrastructure-as-a-service deal, and saw it supply 1,000 of Nvidia’s flagship B200 accelerators.
SK hynix close to LPDDR6 production
Korean memory-maker SK hynix last week announced it has successfully developed a 16Gb LPDDR6 DRAM based on the sixth-generation 10nm-class (1c) process technology.
LPDDR6 is a memory standard that the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council [12]says is “designed to significantly boost memory speed and efficiency for a variety of uses including mobile devices and AI.”
SK Hynix plans to complete preparations for mass production within the first half of the year and begin supplying the product in the second half.
[13]
Once the RAM rolls out the door, SK hynix says manufacturers will enjoy 10.7 Gbps data transfers, while using 20 percent less power than previous generations of memory consumed.
Adult sites cover up down under
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[1] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2238703%C2%AE=3&lang=1
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[5] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2238772%C2%AE=3&lang=1
[6] https://news.sap.com/japan/2026/03/sap-japan-launches-japanese-version-of-s4hana-cloud-public-edition-retail/?amp=1
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/09/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/01/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/23/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[12] https://www.jedec.org/news/pressreleases/jedec%C2%AE-releases-new-lpddr6-standard-enhance-mobile-and-ai-memory-performance
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
“Another promising intervention is the AI-based early-warning system deployed at Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu, which uses a network of 12 tower-mounted cameras equipped with thermal and motion-sensing technology,” according to a government [1]announcement about the workshop. “The system detects elephant movement within 100 metres of railway tracks and automatically alerts forest and railway officials, enabling trains to slow down and allowing elephants to cross safely.”
Another technology called the “Distributed Acoustic System (DAS)-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS)” is already in place across 64.03 km of elephant corridors and 141 km of railway block sections in Assam. India’s East Coast Railway will adopt that system soon.
[2]
The government statement also refers to field surveys, which identified hundreds of locations where bridges, underpasses, or fences, can do the job. No AI required.
[3]
[4]
Independent of the elephantine AI announcements, India’s railways last week [5]revealed they’re using AI to help with maintenance and operational resilience.
SAP expands Japanese cloud
SAP last week [6]announced the availability of a Japanese version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, for retail, fashion, and vertical business.
The ERP giant said it unleashed the offering after its local partner One Isle Consulting secured verification it complies with local laws.
SAP expects its new product will find favor among “rapidly growing retail and fashion companies, as well as companies challenging new business models.”
South Korea launches ‘K-Science’ innovation plan
South Korea’s government last week launched a national R&D plan, and branded elements of the scheme “K-science.”
The overall plan includes familiar goals such as ensuring local industry can develop products the world wants to buy, keeps up with developments in AI, and ensuring continued strength in semiconductors.
[7]
The K-Science element is an effort to tap the nation’s strength, and culture, to develop ideas and products that could only come from South Korea.
The Register looks forward to K-Science Demon Hunters hitting Netflix real soon now.
[8]Beijing warns of more chip supply worries after Nexperia China claims it was cut off from SAP
[9]AWS Middle East disrupted after ‘objects struck datacenter’ amid Iran war
[10]Infosys chair says AI will clean up legacy systems – then make more of them
[11]US appears open to reversing some China tech bans
Lenovo scores big Blackwell cluster in Oz
Lenovo last week announced it built a 1,000-GPU cluster for Australian neocloud Sharon AI.
The Chinese company said the gig is its biggest-ever infrastructure-as-a-service deal, and saw it supply 1,000 of Nvidia’s flagship B200 accelerators.
SK hynix close to LPDDR6 production
Korean memory-maker SK hynix last week announced it has successfully developed a 16Gb LPDDR6 DRAM based on the sixth-generation 10nm-class (1c) process technology.
LPDDR6 is a memory standard that the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council [12]says is “designed to significantly boost memory speed and efficiency for a variety of uses including mobile devices and AI.”
SK Hynix plans to complete preparations for mass production within the first half of the year and begin supplying the product in the second half.
[13]
Once the RAM rolls out the door, SK hynix says manufacturers will enjoy 10.7 Gbps data transfers, while using 20 percent less power than previous generations of memory consumed.
Adult sites cover up down under
Don’t ask how The Register verified this, but major adult entertainment sites have stopped serving their spiciest stuff in Australia rather than attempt to comply with the nation’s requirement that some website operators verify users’ ages before providing service.
The sites’ decision has led to a surge in VPN adoption in Australia, and rising concern that some netizens will now turn to sites that scoff at age verification requirements – and perhaps even the minimal standards of decency other adult sites observe. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2238703%C2%AE=3&lang=1
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2238772%C2%AE=3&lang=1
[6] https://news.sap.com/japan/2026/03/sap-japan-launches-japanese-version-of-s4hana-cloud-public-edition-retail/?amp=1
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/09/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/01/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/23/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[12] https://www.jedec.org/news/pressreleases/jedec%C2%AE-releases-new-lpddr6-standard-enhance-mobile-and-ai-memory-performance
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33abeOc9zKWy4PrwszNzTNDAAAAco&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: British Rail Solution?
Anonymous Coward
100% effective you say? Soon the IT consultants will have a proposal to expand it, so management's PR consultants can brag about strengthening their commitment to the environment.
Re: British Rail Solution?
Rikki Tikki
True, British Rail hasn't had a train-elephant collision in nearly 30 years. Though I was going to suggest painting the elephants fluorescent pink to make it easier for train drivers to see them.
"AI can stop trains hitting elephants"
Bebu sa Ware
Even in the "interesting" and peculiar times that is not a sequence if tokens I would ever had expected to see in an el Rego headline.
I don't know how many heffalumps are involved but another option might have been to tag each beast with a radio transponder so you might detect whether one or more of these pachyderms are within cooee of a locomotive.
Elephants are about the only exotic creature that trains couldn't collide with in Australia. Camels, donkeys, water buffalo etc are all on the table track.
Next: can train elephants to stop hitting AI — but why would you?
British Rail Solution?
Can't the Indians just copy the system used by British Rail?
It appears to have a 100% effectiveness in stopping train-elephant collisions across the entire network