Plan Bee of Northeast Frontier Railway

Plan Bee of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has won the best innovation award in Indian Railways for the fiscal year 2018-19.

Plan Bee

Plan Bee is an amplifying system which imitates the buzz of a swarm of honey bees to keep wild elephants away from railway tracks.

Protecting Elephants

There are 29 earmarked elephant corridors with the operating zone of NFR spread across the north-eastern states and parts of Bihar and West Bengal. Trains are required to slow down at these corridors and adhere to speed specified on signs.

But often elephants have ventured into the path of trains even in non-corridor areas, resulting in accidents and death of elephants.

Hence to address this wildlife crisis the Rangiya Division of NFR in association with forest officials developed an “elephant repellent” based on the honey bee buzz.

Plan Bee system generates the amplified sound of honey bees audible from 700-800 metres. Elephants usually run away hearing the sound of bees. This has aided in saving the possible development-wildlife conflict which was taking heavy tool due to the collision of elephants with trains.