Pune: AI to Help Manage Leopard Menace in Junnar; Will Alert Villagers and Forest Officials

Junnar in Pune district is known fir the leopard menace. To curb the threat, the Junnar Forest Division in Pune is working with a city based organization. This system once developed will be attached to CTVs and will alert villagers and forest officials.

The system was tried and tested in a village in Junnar. Due to the menace, most farmers in the region have installed CCTVs near their farms. This system developed by a city based tech firm integrates with CCTV cameras on farms, informing villagers and officials of leopard presence and focusing on enhancing safety around residential areas.

Here's how it works

The system consists of a high-performance microcontroller integrated into a GPU-based minicomputer, which will be placed near the cameras. The deep learning model will be trained using an extensive database that includes details on leopards' behavior, coat color, eye movement, and other characteristics to accurately identify them. The model is expected to be ready within a month and will be deployed in hotspot villages. The team is also working on acquiring the best cameras for leopard identification.