Telangana Police deploy TG-QUEST drones for Medaram Jatara
HYDERABAD: Telangana police have deployed TG-QUEST, an artificial intelligence-enabled drone policing system, at the Medaram Jatara, Asia’s largest Adivasi religious congregation, where nearly two crore devotees are expected over four days from January 28.
Police said the deployment is part of “Medaram 2.0”, which integrates next generation artificial intelligence analytics and drone based surveillance to enable predictive, technology led bandobast with wider coverage, faster alerts and fewer blind spots.
AI-driven bandobast across forest terrain
The Medaram Jatara spans about 30 sq km across dense forest terrain, narrow approach roads, the altars area and high density ritual zones such as the Jampanna Vagu bathing point. TG-QUEST combines aerial intelligence, artificial intelligence and real time analytics through a centralised command and control dashboard linked to police stations and the Integrated Command and Control Centre.
A senior police officer said the scale and terrain of the jatara pose challenges such as sudden crowd surges, stampede risk, traffic bottlenecks, missing persons, VIP movement and protection of ritual sanctity. “Peak density across a large forested area with limited access makes technology led policing critical,” the officer said.
Crowd, traffic and crime monitoring
Director General of Police B Shivadhar Reddy said AI-enabled drones provide continuous aerial monitoring and that a single TG-QUEST drone can replace three to four patrol units. “TG-QUEST acts as a digital beat officer, giving commanders live situational awareness and enabling quick decision-making from the control room,” he said.
Police said AI based people counting cameras have been installed at the jatara site, entry and exit points and queue areas, along with drone- and helium balloon mounted pan tilt zoom cameras. Threshold based alerts are triggered when crowd density crosses safe limits to help prevent stampedes.
Traffic and parking management includes AI driven traffic density monitoring on approach roads, automatic number plate recognition, Road Transport Authority integration and smart analytics across 34 designated parking locations. Drone based public address systems will issue real time guidance. Telangana police are also collaborating with Google Maps for smart traffic advisories, while geotagging and tracking of missing persons is being supported through a collaboration with Vodafone.
For crime prevention, police said facial recognition technology will be used to identify wanted criminals and suspects, along with surveillance for suspicious activity and detection of abandoned objects. Live alerts will be sent to police stations and field units.
Children tracking system introduced
A children tracking and monitoring system has been introduced as part of the bandobast. Police said QR coded wristband style smart tags will be distributed to children and elderly devotees. The tags carry the person’s name, guardian contact details, residential address and the 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 being implemented in collaboration with Vodafone.
How TG-QUEST works
AI-integrated drone policing system
Combines aerial intelligence, AI and real-time analytics
Centralised command-and-control dashboard linked to police stations and ICCC
One drone can replace three to four patrols
Children tracking and monitoring system integrated into bandobast
