Coordinated efforts needed to prevent elephant deaths

Coimbatore: Divisional railway manager (DRM) of Palakkad division Trilok Kothari has urged the forest department to take steps to reduce delay in sharing information on movement of wild elephants to prevent train-elephant collisions.

Three elephants were mowed down by Mangaluru -Chennai express train on Track A between Walayar and Ettimadai on the night of November 26. “Most of the animal watchers are deployed on Track B, which also has most of the watchtowers since it is close to the forest. But railway officials didn’t receive any information on elephants crossing Track B on the nigh the accident happened. Perhaps they missed the elephants, which crossed Track B to reach A,” Kothari told TOI.

Immediately after the accident, the forest department deployed more staff on the stretch, Kothari said. “Presence of more watchtowers on the stretch will reduce the delay in passing information to railway on marauding elephants.”

Being one of the busiest lines of the Southern Railway, over 70 trains pass through each of the tracks daily.

While forest department officials believe that the train was running above the permissible speed limit, Kothari said that the investigation being conducted by the forest department will reveal what caused the accident. Suggesting a long-term solution to prevent such incidents, he said elephants must be prevented from coming out of the forest. “Even if they come out, they should be tracked effectively and allowed a safe passage. We are trying to work closely with the forest department on this,” he said.

K S Ramakrishnan, a railway researcher, said the government departments concerned are not aware of the aftermath of the changes in crop pattern and other developments taking place in the region, which lead to human-animal conflict. “They should regulate what farmers in Ettimadai and Navakkarai areas are cultivating. Most of them raise maize, corn, sugarcane and banana that attracts elephants. They should be advised to cultivate crops like castor plants, chilli, cotton, sesame, onion, garlic, ginger, mulberry, tobacco and turmeric, which are not preferred by elephants.”