Soon, govt to chalk out action plan to curb death of jumbos on rail tracks

Kolkata: The Railway Ministry and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) will jointly come up with an action plan on the use technology to curb elephant deaths on rail tracks.

A two-day workshop was held at Chalsa in North Bengal on November 16 and 17 which was attended by scientists and experts on forest and wildlife across the country to zero in on the use of technology for preventing the death of jumbo on rail tracks.

"Among technologies that were discussed in length, three sensor based technologies — seismic, acoustic and infra-red were welcomed unanimously. The three technologies were exhibited with intricate details and the way in which it can be interlinked with artificial intelligence to track movement of tuskers or other animals was also shown clearly. The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru will now prepare an action plan on the basis of these technologies within ten days and submit to the Railways and MoEFCC,' said Ravi Kant Sinha, the Chief Wildlife Warden of Bengal.

The three seismic sensor-based technologies developed by IIT Delhi will give a vibratory signal about the pachyderms' movement near rail tracks.

A message would be sent to the nearest station master and the drivers of trains about to pass through the area, so that they remain alert.

The death of pachyderms on rail tracks has been a major cause of concern for the state Forest department.

According to a report placed in Rajya Sabha in January this year, as many as 30 elephants died in Bengal after being hit by speeding trains during the last five years till December 2017. The railway tracks between Siliguri and Alipurduar, stretch close to 165 km passing through several forest areas including Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Jaldapara National Park and Buxa Tiger

Reserve in Bengal.

According to the experts, the spurt in death of elephants in recent times appears to be related to the change from a meter-gauge track to a broad-gauge track in 2003, along with the associated increase in the speed and number of trains.

Prodded by the Supreme Court to curb the death of elephants on railway tracks and by electrocution, it was in 2013 when MoEFCC had proposed the use of

technology.

A pilot project to test the sensors is underway at Rajaji National Park near

Dehradun.

The issue of death of pachyderms has come up for discussion in several meetings between the state government and the Railways in the recent past but such deaths could not be curbed.