Rlys to use sensors on pilot basis for preventing animal deaths on tracks

Kolkata: The Railways will soon start a pilot project on sensor-based technology in and around Alipurduar in North Bengal to prevent death and injuries of wild animals, especially elephants, due to collisions with trains.

The state Forest department on Tuesday held a meeting at Chapramari with senior officials of North East Frontier Railways (NFR) and Alipurduar division in this regard. General Manager of NFR, Anshul Gupta, promised to take all steps for proper implementation of the order of the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court to curb animal deaths on the tracks.

The Railways have already taken measures like diverting some high speed trains and restricting speed limit in case of night trains in the areas, which emerged as high risk zones.

Officials of the state Forest department along with the Railway officials inspected some of the accident prone sites in Alipurduar on Tuesday.

Apart from elephants, animals like bison and leopards have also been victims of rail accidents. In 2019, 3 elephant deaths were reported in North Bengal. In 2020, no deaths were reported as only a few trains were travelling along this stretch amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the last 2 decades, more than 102 pachyderms had died after collisions with trains in North Bengal.

The 165km-long railway tracks between Siliguri and Alipurduar pass through forests, including the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Jaldapara National Park and Buxa Tiger Reserve in Bengal.