EleTect Offers an IoT-Enabled Pathway to Human-Elephant Co-Existence
EleTect aims to reduce human-elephant conflicts by harnessing the elephants' innate fear of honeybees.
Kerala, a small state to the southwest of the Indian peninsula, is known for its scenic landscapes and rich biological diversity. The region is home to thousands of plant and animal species, many of which are found nowhere else.
The Indian elephant is one of Kerala’s state symbols and a central part of the famous Thrissur Pooram temple festival.
However, in recent years, shrinking forests and habitat fragmentation caused by urban expansion have soured this historical relationship. As elephants lose their migration routes and feeding grounds, they are forced into closer contact with people and enter farms and villages, which often ends tragically for the humans and elephants.
Human-elephant conflict is a recurring problem in most elephant range countries. In India, 400 people and 100 elephants die in conflict incidents annually, according to a report by the Wildlife Trust of India. These run-ins have become increasingly common as climate change and surging human population increase pressure on shared resources such as land, food, and water.
Elephants are voracious feeders, and a single herd of elephants can wreak havoc on a year's worth of crops in a single night, leading aggrieved farmers to hunt the elephants in retaliation. Rogue elephants, females with young, and elephants in musth (a periodic rise in testosterone levels) are also prone to bouts of aggression and may engage in destructive activity against people and villages.
Natural deterrents have shown some promise in mitigating human-elephant conflicts. Elephants have shown a sharp aversion to loud noises, chilli pepper, lemon trees, and, importantly, the buzz of disturbed bees.
In 2007, Dr. Lucy King and her team discovered elephants run away from the sound of disturbed bees. Since then, beehive fences (interlinked beehives placed around farms) have been used to deter raiding elephants. These beehive fences are, however, hard to maintain and implement on large farms, creating the need for a solution that is far easier to scale.
Abhinav Krishna and Amritha M, both natives of Kerala and students at the Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, designed EleTect — a smart elephant detection system that works via a network of connected sensor nodes in conflict-prone areas.
The agent nodes run vision-based and sound-based tinyML models to improve detection accuracy. Each node has a Seeed Studio Grove Vision AI V2 module for vision and a XIAO ESP32-Sense module for sound. The nodes communicate with the host node via LoRa.
On detecting an elephant, the nodes’ onboard speakers emit a honeybee buzzing sound, and the host node alerts local authorities and residents via SMS. All collected data are sent to a base station for monitoring and analysis, which allows for improved accuracy and more effective conflict prevention.
EleTect is a scalable and inexpensive alternative to bee fences. The system is solar-powered and suitable for deployment in the remote villages of Kerala. It is also fairly affordable, with the agent and host nodes priced at $30 and $70, respectively.
EleTect came in first place in IEEE’s IAS Humanitarian Contest 2025, and its authors are currently working on a new design that models a honeybee hive and uses a wide-angle or gimbal-mounted night vision camera for detection in low-light conditions. The team is also developing a Flutter-based mobile app for finding nearby devices and receiving alerts.
Field testing is important for such a life-critical system, and Abhinav says they have received permission from the authorities to begin testing in Kottapady and Kothamangalam. He also plans to work with the local farmers, forest officials, and the communities to deploy and maintain the systems.
Like all elephant species across Africa and Asia, Indian elephants have been endangered since 1986. There are fewer than 25,000 Indian elephants left in the wild, with populations declining every year.
Human-elephant conflict is a symptom of the much larger problem of habitat fragmentation and encroachment. EleTect can support ongoing conservation efforts like Room to Roam and the Elephant Crisis Fund by helping reduce human-elephant conflict and promoting peaceful coexistence.
Abhinav and Amritha express their gratitude to their college principal, Dr. Bos Matthew Jos, for helping to bring EleTect to life. You can learn more about EleTect on the project page.