Nagpur: The state govt is banking on AI-powered technology to prevent man-animal conflict as almost a thousand cameras will track the movement of predators around villages and farmlands to warn citizens ahead of time.

On Saturday, the govt signed a MoU with its own entity, Maharashtra Advanced Research and Vigilance for Enhanced Law Enforcement (Marvel), to implement a system to alert villagers whenever its web of cameras detects animal movement. Marvel was started by the state govt in partnership with IIM-Nagpur and a private technology company.From Tadoba to Navegaon to Pench, Marvel will create a system where such intrusions will be detected.

Tadoba already has an ‘AI wall' in place, which also uses cameras to detect the presence of predators.Ashish Jaiswal, MoS finance and assistant guardian minister of Gadchiroli, said, "Earlier, the number of tigers was less, hence the govt formulated policies to safeguard them. Now the number of tigers has increased and will keep on increasing every year, hence we need to ensure that human lives are not lost in man-animal conflict."

For this, the govt joined hands with Marvel, which is headed by IPS officer Harssh Poddar.

Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, "Around 900 cameras will be in place to monitor the movement of predators. Whenever a tiger or leopard is spotted near the village, instantly an alert will be sent to everyone there."Instances of man-animal conflict have been on the rise in eastern Vidarbha, which have led to strong protests by the people.

In 2024, in a village bordering Pench near Deolapar, protests erupted after a woman was killed by a tiger just hours after the big cat injured a youth. The villagers damaged a forest department vehicle when it entered the area reflecting people's anger over the rising conflicts.With the current govt understanding the problem of the rising tiger population, efforts were being made to find feasible solutions. For the last two months, Jaiswal and Bawankule have been coordinating with forest minister Ganesh Naik to reach a common ground.

Last month, a meeting was held in Mumbai where the three went over various issues related to the conflict.As reported by TOI, the govt has also started working on the scheme of leasing land in buffer areas from farmers so that they do not have to risk their lives while farming. This way the farmers get fixed income from the govt without actually toiling there.