Coimbatore: Wouldn't it be possible to avoid man-elephant conflicts if there were an early warning system to alert people about the movement of wild elephants in their area? And that's what exactly city-based N Parthiparajan, 33, and S Suresh, 29, have done.The device would be now used at Thadagam area and Periyanaickenpalayam forest range on a pilot basis to curb man-animal conflicts. Forest department officials said if the trials were a success, the device would be installed in many places of Coimbatore forest division.Parthiparajan, president, Western Ghats Wildlife Conservation Trust, and Suresh, proprietor of 3Q technologies, said they developed the GSM (global system for mobile communications)-based device to alert the people residing along the forest fringes about the movement of elephants.The device has a SIM card with more than 250-300 mobile numbers of villagers fed to it. The device would be fixed atop of a pole along the forest fringes and it would be connected to a siren and a revolving LED light. The SIM card details would be shared with two villagers and three field staff of the forest department, they said.If the designated villagers and field staff were to spot wild elephant(s) near the village, they would dial the mobile number of the device by using their mobile phone. Immediately, the villagers would get an alert about the elephant movement. The LED light would also start to function. If any of the five were to send an SMS to the mobile number of the device, it would trigger a siren, the duo further explained."The siren sound will cover 3km radius and it's an alert for the villagers not to come out of their houses. This would prevent man-animal conflict," Parthiparajan said.N Satheesh, district forest officer, Coimbatore forest division said that the department has asked the duo to test the device on a trial and error basis at Thadagam area and Periyanaickenpalayam forest range. "If it's successful, we will install more such devices in areas prone to man-animal conflict," he said.In June last, four people were trampled to death by a tusker in the city within a span of two-and-a-half hours. Had there been any communication regarding the elephant movement in the area, there wouldn't have been any causality."This prompted us to develop the early warning system," the duo said.

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