Train kills elephant in Uttarakhand

Dehradun, June 26 : A female elephant was found dead in the Rajaji Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand on Tuesday after being run over by a train, a forest official said. Officials told IANS that a group of 17 elephants was crossing the rail tracks when the high-speed Dehradun-Kathgodam Express was passing by.

While foresters tried to alert the driver, he did not slow down the train, resulting in the death of the elephant.

Drivers of trains are expected to slow down while passing through the national park. But elephants continue to be hit and killed by trains.

The management of the forest reserve said a case will be filed against the train driver.


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Vidyut Jammwal appreciates Indian Railways efforts to save elephants

Vidyut Jammwal who also plays a elephant loving vet in his upcoming film Junglee, took to Twitter to laud the efforts to protect the elephant Vidyut Jammwal The increasing number of cases pertaining to elephants who get killed on railway tracks are on the rise, and the Indian Railways has recently started an initiative to solve the problem. They have imposed strict restrictions on speed limit at several stretches of North Eastern tracks where the problem is on the rise. The stretches where trains will slow down include 62 identified elephant corridors. Railway data shows that 70 elephants have died after being hit by trains since 2013. Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and the forest department records say train-hits killed 16 elephants in 2016, and at least a dozen last year. Vidyut Jammwal who is an animal lover, who also plays an elephant loving vet who is set out to uncover a deadly poaching racket in his upcoming film Junglee, took to Twitter to laud the efforts to protect the elephants. He wrote: Congratulations to everyone behind this initiative, thank you @RailMinIndia @RailNf & @PiyushGoyal ji for being so thoughtful about the lives of our ELEPHANTS! This sure will help us save the mighty giants from tragedies in futureclick here — Vidyut Jammwal (@VidyutJammwal) May 28, 2018 Junglee is a family adventure film which revolves around the unique friendship between a man and elephant, adds Vidyut.


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Elephant run over by speeding train | Kolkata News

JALPAIGURI: A sub-adult female elephant was mowed down by an Alipurduar-bound train at Banerhat in Jalpaiguri around 11.30pm on Friday.

The train that left from New Jalpaiguri hit the jumbo between Redbank and Debpara tea estates.

Ironically, the same afternoon the forest department had held a meeting with railway officials in Jaldapara on the issue of elephants often being run over by trains.

The ‘cowcatcher’ (a metal frame in the front of the engine for pushing aside cattle or other obstacles on the line) tossed the elephant around 100 yards away from the tracks.

The last such accident was reported in February this year when a sub-adult male elephant was killed near Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary between Chalsa and Nagrakata. Friday’s accident spot falls under a recognised elephant corridor, which is also an accident-prone area. In 2011, as many as seven elephants were mowed down simultaneously at Moraghat. Since the conversion of the NJPAlipurduar track in 2004, speeding trains have killed over 70 elephants on this route that passes through national parks and wild life sanctuaries.

Alipurduar’s divisional railway manager, CV Raman, said, “The accident occurred as the elephant came on the track suddenly.” Chief conservator of forests (wildlife, northern circle) Ujjal Ghosh said, “We had informed the railways in advance about the movement of elephants in the area. But the accident could not be averted. This is not acceptable.”


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Indian rail officials turn to bees to save elephants

Patna: Railway authorities in India are playing the buzzing sound of bees along sections of the country’s tracks to save elephants from being killed by trains.

According to reports, more than 120 elephants were killed by trains between 2008 and 2017.



Authorities said the initiative has been launched in the Dooars region of Kishangnaj-Guwahati, which falls under the Northeast Frontier (NF) railways.

Under the project, the buzzing sound of bees is being played through speakers along the tracks at 27 points considered to be the most sensitive points.

The buzzing irritates elephants, meaning they will move away each time the sound is played as trains are moving on the track.

“We are trying hard to save the elephants from being knocked down on tracks in the elephant corridor and the initial experiment has yielded positive results so far,” the NF’s chief public relations officer Pranav Jyoti Verma told journalists.

Authorities took to this measure to protect the pachyderms after many of them came under the wheels of the speeding trains and were killed by crossing the railway tracks in the areas marked as “elephant corridor” in recent months, officials said.

The Dooars region of Kishanganj-Guwahati rail line is famous for elephants.

Reports said initially, rail officials made changes to train schedules, after studying the timings and routes of elephant migrations from one habitat to another.

They also blew horns repeatedly to alert the elephants crossing the track.

Subsequently, they limited the speed of the trains passing through the “elephant corridors” at night but failed to achieve the desired results.

Eventually, the railways adopted the buzzing sound idea.

Although the authorities used many elephant-repulsion techniques such as the chili bomb and electric fences in the past to drive them away from railway tracks, this buzzing sound has been the most effective and cost-efficient, officials say. It is a simple device that amplifies the recorded sound of honeybees downloaded from the internet.The device costs around Rs2,000 (Dh108) to set up and is audible to an elephant 600 metres away. NFR covers northern West Bengal and parts of eastern Bihar besides the northeastern states.




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In Fact: Why trains keep killing elephants

Four elephants, including a calf, were cut down by a train in Odisha on Monday. Trains now kill 17 elephants every year on average in India. Here’s what makes the Elephas maximus so vulnerable.

It is the sovereign’s duty to protect the forests where elephants thrive, says the Manasollasa, a 12th century Sanskrit text attributed to the Western Chalukya king Someshvara III — because only the richest and widest of forests can support the large, long-ranging Elephas maximus.

Eight centuries on, the elephant still makes the biggest demands on the resources of an increasingly crowded and denuded land. And pays a heavy price as one of the worst victims of India’s development.

Most often, elephants make news when they die on rail tracks — a crushed family, rather than a single animal, makes bigger headlines; a calf or pregnant cow multiplies the outrage. Like the four elephants, including a calf, mowed down in Odisha on Monday; or the five killed in Assam this February; or the six, one of them pregnant, in Assam again, in December.

Trains have been killing elephants for a while. The Environment Ministry’s Elephant Task Force report estimated more than 100 elephants had died on the tracks during 2001-10. Many, like the recent deaths, are mass casualties — six elephants were killed in Ganjam, Odisha, in December 2012, and seven in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, in September 2010.

The frequency and number of train kills have, in fact, been rising. The tracks between Siliguri and Alipurduar in North Bengal recorded 27 deaths between 1974 and 2002; this figure more than doubled to 65 between 2004 and 2015. Across India, average annual casualties jumped from nine during 2000-09 to 17 over the next seven years.


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Five Elephants Killed After Being Hit By Speeding Train In New Delhi, India

On Saturday February 10, five elephants were killed after being hit by a speeding train in New Delhi, India.

As the night train to Silchar approached the elephants who were crossing the tracks, a group of villagers waved their flashlights frantically in an attempt to alert the driver to slow down. However, by the time the driver saw what was in front of him and hit the emergency breaks, it was too late.

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Assam’s jumbo problem: Man-animal conflict takes a huge toll

Guwahati, March 8 (IANS) With the deaths of over a hundred elephants in a year due to unnatural reasons like being hit by trains and electrocution, followed by death of close to another hundred human beings in conflict with elephants in a year, Assam is seemingly looking at a jumbo problem with no immediate solution in sight.

While the Assam forest department has claimed to have taken several steps, including formation of local coordination committees in districts to monitor the movement of wild elephants, and created elephant depredation squads, a solution is seemingly far from sight.

“We are concerned about the deaths of wild elephants as well as humans due to the conflict. Steps are being taken by the department to stop the menace of human-elephant conflict as well as to stop other elephant deaths in the state,” Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said.

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Elephant hit by train dies

An elephant died after it was hit by a train in Lalkuan in Nainital district on Sunday. This is the second jumbo death on railway tracks in less than a month. Earlier, a tusker was killed after being hit by the Nanda Devi Express inside the Rajaji Tiger Reserve in February.
The death had prompted the state forest department to prepare a set of proposals to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks between Haridwar and Dehradun. These included having forest guards onboard to alert locopilots, increasing patrolling time near tracks and taking steps for better coordination between forest staff and railway officials.

The tusker who died on Sunday was likely hit by the locomotive early morning. Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forests, western circle, Kumaon, said, “The deceased elephant is a 10-year-old male. We are investigating whether the train was following the prescribed speed.” The state forest department said that this was the 10th elephant to be hit by a train in the past 17 years in the state.

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Safe passage for Odisha wildlife put on track

BHUBANESWAR: With growing expansion of railway networks cutting through critical wildlife habitats, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has lent a hand to Odisha for creation of passages for wild animals,elephants to be particular, as part of mitigation measures that can prevent casualties on the tracks.

The Wildlife Wing of the State Government has submitted a proposal to DG (Forests) which will be placed before the Rail Ministry for financial support. On April 28, DG (Forests) Sidhanta Das wrote to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) SS Srivastava informing Prabhu’s interest to support construction of under and overpasses to prevent death of wild animals due to train accidents.The Wildlife Wing’s proposal includes construction of underpasses at 14 points in three forest divisions of the State, sources said.

One underpass has been proposed in Berhampur Forest Division where five jumbos were killed by
Coromondal Express five years back. Of the 11 proposals under Keonjhar Forest Division, three are
planned between Keonjhar and Nayagarh under East Coast Railway, seven between Nayagarh and
Padapahad and one between Keonjhar and Harichandanpur under South Eastern Railway. Similarly, under Athagarh Forest Division, one underpass has been planned along Joranda RoadRaj Athagarh.

In Keonjhar and Rairakhole Divisions, girder fencing has been proposed at six places which are used
by elephant as passages. These rail fencings include Keonjhar­Banspani segment and the stretch from
Rungta mines to Nayagarh. Since wild animals, mostly elephants, fall victim to trains after failing to assess their speed, the Wildlife Wing has also proposed nine segments where pace of the trains has to be controlled.

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Curb elephant deaths in Assam

Three days after the Indian Railways instructed its officials to reduce train speeds to 30 km per hour when crossing elephant corridors, a train engine killed three more elephants including a calf. The incident occurred between Kampur and Jamunamukh stations near Nagaon in Assam. This is the seventh elephant death on the railway tracks of Assam. Just about two weeks ago, three elephants, including two pregnant elephants and a juvenile, were killed at Hojai in the Nagaon district of Assam.

A day later, another elephant died after being hit by a train in Goalpara district. The continuing apathy of various authorities towards this increasing death toll of elephants is hard to fathom. This alarming rise in the number of elephant deaths in the state should be a wake-up call for the Indian Railways, the Forest Department and the District Administration in the state, requiring immediate action to put an end to this continuous horror, now playing out in Assam at a regular pace. The Assam government, Northeast Frontier Railways-Indian Railways, Project Elephant, and District Administrations need to make a concerted effort to immediately stop the tragic deaths. According to the WTI publication, Right of Passage-Elephant Corridors of India, 41% of elephant corridors are in north-east India and 25% of the elephant corridors in Assam have railway lines passing through them.

As elephants search for food and water, they roam over a large extent of area through villages and towns, crossing railway lines and farms. Linear infrastructure development near and in corridors that elephants use to move from one forest area to another, force them to cross railway tracks where they end up getting hit by trains. There are 27 identified elephant corridors under the Northeast Frontier Railway. However, elephant herds are also found to be now crossing railway tracks which are not earmarked as vulnerable. In light of this, a fresh assessment needs to be done to identify new vulnerable railway sections and an early warning system needs to be put into place immediately to reduce these casualties. WWF-India has been working in Assam for the last 15 years for the conservation of elephants and its habitat.

 Based on this experience, WWF India has the following recommendations for the government that should be put in place immediately: The Railways, Forest Department, State Governments and District Administration need to take up joint efforts including patrolling to monitor elephant movement near railway tracks. There needs to be a focussed and continuous awareness programme for railway staff in wildlife areas about the ‘right of passage’ of wildlife in such areas.

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Elephant deaths: Sonowal asks Forest, NFR to improve coordination

Expressing concern over increasing elephant deaths on railway tracks in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday directed the state Forest Department and Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to improve coordination to avoid similar incidents.

Meeting Forest and NFR officials, he advocated a strategy to tackle rising number of such incidents, and favoured joint monitoring of railway tracks on daily basis. He also instructed the Forest Department to adopt an aggressive approach.

The Chief Minister's directive came after three elephants, including a pregnant female and a calf, were killed by a speeding railway engine at Potiapam near Kampur on Saturday night. This was the third such incident that have taken place in the state this month after at Nagaon and Goalpara districts which had left a total of five jumbos dead.

The Chief Minister also ordered immediate setting up local level Monitoring Committee involving people living in adjoining areas of the tracks in all the 29 elephant corridors with a view to share real time information with the Railway Control Rooms, where Forest Department officials would also be deputed.

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Baby jumbo among three killed by speeding train in Assam

Nagaon (Assam) [India], Dec. 5 (ANI): Three elephants - aged about 15, 13 and 3 years - were found dead by a railway patrolling team on Monday morning after they were hit by the 15905 Up Kanyakumari-Dibrugarh Vivek Express near Jugijan railway station in Nagaon District late last night.

The incident happened when the herd of elephants was crossing the railway track from Kunduli Mari village to Santipur village at a location about 137 km from Guwahati railway station.

The incident took place around 11.50 p.m., when a herd of wild elephants was crossing the railway track from Kunduli Mari village to Santipur village at a location about 137 km from Guwahati railway station and the trio came on the railway tracks and dashed against the train engine, said Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Northeast Frontier Railway (N.F.Railway), in a statement issued here.

The N.F. Railway has alerted the State Forest Department about the incident, however, neither the train was stalled nor were there injury to any passenger in the incident, he said.

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Central team takes stock of elephant deaths

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over the frequent incidents of elephant deaths in Odisha, the Centre on Saturday rushed two senior officials here to take stock of the situation.

The two-member investigating official team comprising Additional Director General (Wildlife) S S Gabrial and IG (wildlife) A M Singh met forest minister Bijayashree Routray and discussed the elephant deaths, including the December 30 in which five elephants were run over by Coromandal Express at Subalaya in Ganjam district.

Odisha in 2012 officially recorded nearly 60 elephants deaths, many due to electrocution and train hits. The team visited Subalaya, and spoke to the assistant executive engineer, Balugaon, representing the East Coast Railway and the local people. The officials wanted to meet the level-crossing gateman but he was not available.

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Five Indian elephants run over by train in Orissa

Five elephants have been killed after being hit by a passenger train in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

The animals were hit when their herd was crossing railway tracks in the Rambha forest area, a railway spokesman, RN Mohapatra, said.

The state's wildlife department said its warning asking trains to slow down because elephants were moving in the area was ignored.

Nearly 300 elephants have been killed in Orissa in the past five years.

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