HYDERABAD: Telangana police have deployed TG-QUEST, an AI-integrated drone policing system, at Medaram jatara, Asia’s largest Adivasi religious congregation where nearly two crore devotees are expected over four days from Jan 28. Police said the deployment is part of ‘Medaram 2.0’, bringing next-generation AI analytics and drone vision for predictive, technology-led bandobast with wider coverage, faster alerts, and fewer blind spots.Medaram jatara spans over 30 sq km, encompassing dense forest terrain, narrow roads, the site where the altars are located, and highdensity ritual zones such as the Jampanna vagu bathing area. Police said TG-QUEST combines aerial intelligence, artificial intelligence, and real-time analytics to support proactive policing in Mulugu district through a centralised command-and-control dashboard linked to police stations and the Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC).Tech-led bandobast“Why Medaram needs TGQUEST is that it is not only Asia’s largest with two crore devotees, but has extreme peak density as it is spread over 30 sq km. That is forest terrain, approach roads, and limited access. There are a lot of challenges like crowd surge and stampede risk, traffic bottlenecks, missing persons, VIP movement, and protection of ritual sanctity,” a top police officer said.Officials said AI-enabled drones provide continuous aerial monitoring, and a TGQUEST drone can replace three-four patrols. “In traditional policing, we depend more on human resources. TG-QUEST acts as a ‘digital beat officer’, giving commanders live situational awareness and enabling quick decision-making from the control room,” director-general of police B Shivadhar Reddy said. Police said AI-based people-counting cameras at the jatara site, entry/exit points and queues, along with drone and helium balloon-mounted pan tilt zoom cameras for aerial monitoring, help in managing crowd to prevent stampedes. Threshold-based alerts are triggered when crowd density exceeds safe limits.Traffic and parking management includes AI-driven traffic density monitoring across approach roads, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and RTA integration. It also has smart analytics across 34 designated parking locations, and dronebased public address announcements for real-time guidance. For smart traffic advisories, Telangana police are collaborating with Google Maps, while geotagging and tracking of missing persons is supported through a collaboration with Vodafone.For crime prevention, police said facial recognition technology would be used to identify wanted criminals and suspects, alongside surveillance for suspicious activity and detection of abandoned objects, with live alerts sent to police stations and field units.A children tracking & monitoring system (CTMS) was introduced as part of the bandobast. Police said a QR-coded wristband-style smart tags would be distributed to children and elderly devotees, carrying the person’s name, guardian contact details, residential address, and control room contact number. The QR code can be scanned by police, volunteers, or members of the public to enable quick reunification. The system is implemented in collaboration with Vodafone.
