Abstract:
Protecting the endangered Sri Lankan elephants and mitigating the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC)
require proper understanding of the subject. Yet, so far, the available information is fragmented or not
easily accessible and often it is outdated or erroneous. While efforts are ongoing to rectify this, it is
imperative that, in order to make the most effective use of information, there should be a state-of-the-art
system to centralize available information, make it easily accessible and easily updated via various
methods. This study attempted to evaluate the potential for using web-mobile applications and geofencing
technique to detect the elephants’ intrusion in Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka. To fulfill the
aforesaid requirement, as an innovative idea, a sophisticated tracking system which comprises a webmobile based application server and a mobile application leveraging embedded GPS data in images is
developed as a prototype and tested in Udawalawe National Park having selected an elephant to fix the
GPS collar. The mobile application helps to obtain the relevant elephant data by accessing the geospatial
database which would be implemented in the cloud-based environment in a geofence. This system thus
addresses the main problems of identification, tracking and database maintenance of identification and
tracking elephants and maintains the record of them. Further, this will address the monitoring and
implementation of a geospatial database of elephants. Using these feasibility study results, an infrared (IR)
camera and face recognition system developed to absorb the data and present the results of the individual
elephant for free access in a website to be developed. This information could be used to mitigate the human
elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, and help monitor elephant behavior to greatly benefit the relevant parties
like farmers and wildlife conservationists.
