siliconindia | | July 20188IN MY opinionBy Dr. Sandipan Sarkar, IBM Distinguished Engineer|CTO - Artificial Intelligence & IoT Practice, IBMIBM is the world's biggest technology company, it manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting, consulting, and cloud-based services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.AI in Protection of WildlifeOn a foggy Spring morning, my wife Subhalakshmi and I stood on top of a watch tower in Manas National Park in Assam. The tower looked over a vast grassland, now largely burnt down due to Park's annual exercise to generate new shoots. We were training our bin-oculars and telephoto lenses in search of something special ­ Bengal Flori-cans, a critically endangered bird listed in IUCN red list.We managed to find seven spec-imens in couple of hours' effort. In-terestingly, we could find only one female among them. It was breeding season. Males were all showing off their breeding plumage and behaviour. Females should have been around. Why only one? We heard a sad sto-ry. This year, the rain stopped late at the park. The grass burning exercise also started late ­ forest department had to wait to get the grass dried-up. Unfortunately, breeding season of floricans had already started. Many of the female floricans were in hatch-ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: NEW SENTINEL OF WILDLIFE
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