The problem
Kodagu sits along ancient elephant corridors between the forests of the Western Ghats. As habitats fragment, herds increasingly cross farmland, coffee estates, roads, and the edges of villages.
These encounters put lives at risk — for both people and elephants — and cause serious crop and property loss. Word of a nearby herd today travels slowly and unevenly: a phone call here, a WhatsApp message there. By the time a warning reaches everyone, it can be too late.
What Aane Alert does
Aane Alert turns scattered word-of-mouth into a fast, reliable, community-owned warning network. When an elephant is spotted, a verified alert goes out to everyone in the affected area — over SMS, WhatsApp, and push notification — so families, farmers, drivers, and estate workers can stay clear and stay safe.
Sightings come from the community itself and are confirmed by trained local coordinators before an alert is sent, keeping warnings trustworthy. Over time, the movement data builds a living map of high-risk corridors that residents and the Forest Department can use to plan.
Built with and for the community
Aane Alert is free and open source. It is designed to work in Kodagu's real conditions — hilly terrain, patchy mobile coverage, and a mix of languages — and to be run by local people, not a distant company.
This is the first project on Kodagu.ai. The goal is a template other regions facing human–wildlife conflict can adopt and adapt.
How you can help
- Developers: help build the alerting backend, maps, and mobile experience
- Local coordinators: verify sightings and onboard villages and estates
- Designers & translators: make alerts clear in Kodava thakk, Kannada, and English
- Domain experts: wildlife biologists and Forest Department partners to guide corridor mapping