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.

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Farmers, villagers heave a sigh of relief

Coimbatore: Capturing of Vinayagan might not be the end of the problem. While farmers and villagers of Periyathadagam, Varapalayam, Pannimadai and Chinnathadagam heaved a sigh of relief after Vinayagan was captured, environmentalists and forest officials say translocating elephants is not a solution to man–elephant conflicts.

They say only a multi-pronged approach – digging elephant proof trenches, setting up solar fences and improving fodder and water sources inside jungle - would solve the issue.

Chief conservator of forests (CCF), Coimbatore circle, Deepak Srivastava said capturing and translocating an elephant is not a solution.

“As per the elephant psychology, if the leader is taken out, there will be severe impact in the herd. Vinayagan and Chinnathambi were providing leadership for the herd,” Deepak Srivastava said.

He said CRPF at Kurudampalayam has blocked the migratory routes of wild elephants. “Migratory paths have been compromised. There should not be any structures on the migratory path. A study is on to analyze the migratory pattern of the elephants and the factors leading them to enter human habitats,” Deepak Srivatsava said.

“We are trying to take preventive measures. We are profiling the elephants to find out the problematic ones. This would help to prevent man-animal conflicts. We will create green fodder banks inside the reserve forest and water facilities. We will use the advanced technology to monitor the wild elephants. So, we can avoid elephants’ intrusion into villages,” he said.

“We have submitted a proposal to the government for real-time monitoring of the elephant movement. We will install 12 censor thermal cameras in vantage points from Thondamuthur, Boluvampatti and few more areas and we can easily track the wild elephants,” Deepak Srivastava said.

Activist GPN Joshua said, “In Thadagam valley, brick kiln units are involved in sand mining. It affected the movements of elephants. Many educational institutions have also come up along the elephant corridors. When its pathways are blocked, the elephants were forced to enter villages.”

State general secretary of Vivasayigal Sangam (non-political, non-communal and non-religion) P Kandasamy welcomed the forest department for translocating Vinayagan. “We demand the forest department to capture and translocate ‘Chinnathambi’ as well,” said Kandasamy.

He said the forest department should arrange a meeting with farmers, environmental activists, ministers, MLAs, MPs, forest, revenue, agriculture department officials to find a permanent solution for man-animal conflict.

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Crop raiding wild elephant captured near Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Forest officials on Tuesday morning captured one of the
two wild elephants that were causing damage to crops in Thadagam and
Pannimadai areas of Coimbatore district.

The elephant whom locals called Vinayagan would be translocated to
Mudhumalai in the Nilgiris district.

Vinayagan and the other elephant, Chinnathambi, have been in the region
for more than six months.

The elephant was captured a day after farmers from Coimbatore met
principal chief conservator of forests H Mallesappa in Chennai and asked
him to either translocate the elephants or issue shooting orders.

Around 6am on Tuesday, the tusker was noticed in Periyathadagam reserve forest area. A team of veterinary doctors tranquilised the elephant.

Four kumki elephants -- Wasim, Vijay, Cheran and Bomman -- were brought to the spot for the operation.

The wild elephant would be loaded on to a truck with the help of two kumkis, Vijay and Wasim, and sent to Mudhumalai in the evening.

Officials said that they would radio collar the elephant monitor its movement with the help of GPS.

They said Chinnathambi would be captured soon and translocated.

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Farmers pin hopes on forest department

The district forest department has only three more days to keep its assurance given to the farmers to translocate the wild elephants – Vinayakan and Chinna Thambi – before December 9. The department gave the assurance during a meeting held on Sunday.

With the forest department yet to take a final call on the issue, uncertainty prevails over the fate of the wild elephants even as farmers and animal activists root for their translocation.

M Mahalakshmi, a farmer, said three acres of her farmland remain idle for the past one-and-half years because of the fear of wild elephant raid.

“The elephant movement into human habitats has become frequent in the past two years and there is not a single place in Periyanaickenpalayam, especially Thadagam Valley, without the footprints of elephants. As the elephants started raiding crops daily, over 100 acres of land were left uncultivated,” Mahalakshmi said.

General secretary of Vivasaigal Sangam P Kandasamy said no longer we could bear the elephant menace and we want the officials to translocate the wild elephants before December 9.

“The forest department has tried all the possible ways to curb the elephant menace, but nothing worked out. The only option now left is to translocate the tuskers,” he said. “The department even tried driving away the wild elephants using three kumkis for the past one month,” he pointed out.

Wildlife activist Mac Mohan said, “There is no harm in translocating one problematic elephant for the welfare of the farmers. It is the responsibility of the forest department to identify whether the elephants are actually problematic or not.”

He said it is important to ensure that locals do not start hating wildlife because of the elephant menace. Without the support of locals, it is impossible to conserve the wildlife, he added President of Osai, an NGO, S Kalidasan said there are three elephants and a calf moving in the region and it is important to identify which is the problematic elephant before translocating them. It is also important to monitor the movement of elephants after they are translocated, he added. The wild elephants had been entering human habitations frequently ever since August and damaging crops. Since August, the death toll due to human-animal conflict has gone up to six in the region. As the department continuous to be cautious so as not to taste another bitter experience, the farmers are clinging on to the last piece of hope that they have on the forest department.

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IIT-D-built sensor could prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks

Elephant deaths on railway tracks may be averted when a sensor built by a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) is put to test. If all goes well, it may be installed along the tracks frequented by elephants and prevent their cruel deaths.

"The sensors are yet to be installed. This was to be tested in the monsoon season. Since this monsoon has passed, we are waiting for the 2019 season. Our system is functional. We have tested in a similar setting but not at the site. We have earmarked the Rajaji National Park as the test deployment site. It is the ideal place, kind of a controlled environment and good for experiments. It's where trains are known to travel at the correct speed," Subrat Kar, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at IIT-Delhi, told IANS.

According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, in last five years alone India has lost near 100 elephants in train-related accidents. Moving at a slow pace, complete with their calves, they fail to respond fast enough to avoid a train hurtling towards them. In 2018, 26 elephants have so far succumbed to such collisions, the most recent being in Odisha's Keonjhar where an elephant was killed after being hit by a goods train.

Kar has been working on building a sensor device for close to a decade now in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun and funded by the Railways and Department of Science and Technology. Though there has been a buzz around the apparatus for years, it is only now slated to be tested in real conditions.

So far Kar has tested the sensor only inside the IIT-Delhi campus and the results have been "satisfactory".

The sensor detects from a distance the movement of elephants through a number of in-built devices. Once it detects the movement of the elephants, it sends a radio signal to the nearest station, which conveys the message to the driver to either stop or slow down the train.

"We will install sensors at sensitive spots, and not everywhere. There are known paths along which the elephants move, so we install sensors on these paths, which detect them through bodyrays, cameras and vibration. Then we convey the information to the nearest station and from there we convey the information to the train driver.

"In the engine there's a box that signals the engine to stop. If this warning is given to the driver at least three kilometres before the train reaches the spot where elephants are expected to come in their way, he applies the breaks and slowly comes to a halt," Kar explained.

"The success of this preventive measure depends on detecting the elephants much before the train is there. Three kilometres before roughly translates to 3-4 minutes before," he added.

The various sensors in the device corroborate whether the moving animals are indeed elephants and not any other, like a tiger, which can cross the track without needing the train to be slowed down.

"A vibration detector, capturing heat rays coming from the animals, a camera to recognise the animals, and lasers -- the sensor has these all. So we have several sensors to detect the presence of animals. We use one sensor to check the outcome of the other sensor to corroborate the result... We have our own radio network with the sensors," Kar said.

Although Kar has been working on the device since 2008, things picked up pace only in 2014 when the Railways came up with Rs 30 lakh in funding.

On its part, the Railways have employed a variety of methods to keep the elephant deaths in check.

"Various measures have been adopted, jointly by the Railways and the forest department, to prevent elephant deaths on the tracks. These include signage on the tracks to pre-warn train drivers, speed restrictions in elephant corridors and deputing forest officials in the control room," a senior Railways official told IANS.

"All these measures are adopted at locations jointly identified by the forest department and railways in Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Odisha," the official added.

(Vishal Narayan can be contacted at vishal.n@ians.in )

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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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Pilgrim movement restricted

Tirupati: Following the finding of the elephants’ presence in Srivaripadalu area in the forest, 8 km away from Tirumala, the TTD authorities restricted the pilgrim movement and decided to allow devotees from 10 am to 4 pm only.

The elephant movement came to light after the TTD forest staff found the foot prints of jumbos and broken tree branches and trampling of bushes, in a track of forest, few days back, near Srivaripadalu, alerting the TTD authorities. Sources said, a herd of three or four elephants moving in the TTD forest area.

They are believed to be separated from the herd in Yerravaripalem forest moving in Talakona and Kalyani dam forest area or the ones moving in the Kodur forest in Chittoor–Kadapa border.


The herd may be strayed into Srivaripadalu forest area while searching for fodder and water, sources said, adding that the jumbos stay in the area is temporary and they will go back to their habitation after a week or ten days.

As a precautionary measure, the TTD geared up its forest staff to keep a constant watch in the forest area where the elephants’ moving to check them advancing into the forest close to Tirumala.

TTD Chairman P Sudhakar Yadav also on Friday instructed Forest Officer Phanikumar to take adequate measures to avoid the elephant straying into the Tirumala area.


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'Laden' kills around 37 people in India

(Web Desk) – An Indian elephant named ‘Laden’ has terrorized the villagers living in and around the Asam State forest by killing more than 37 people.

The latest killing was reported on June 1 when an Indian villager from Asam State woke up in the middle of the night to find his house under attack by a wild jumbo. After a brief confrontation, the man was crushed to death by the jumbo.

In order to reduce the deaths, the villagers should stop going to the reserve forest areas saying that three out of the seven casualties this year have been inside reserve forests.

The problem started when villagers on the border panic and try to drive the elephants back to Assam. “When the villagers spot herds, they start shouting, beating the drums, creating panic among jumbos, which sometime leads to retaliation.”

The state government has set up elephant depredation protection committees at the village level to minimize damage along with a messaging system which alerts villagers of the movement of elephants through SMSes.


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Jumbos head for Bengal

Jamshedpur: Two elephant herds from Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary have started ambling towards Bengal.

The herds, comprising about a dozen elephants in each, are anchored at Digha and Chekam jungles of Ghatshila, around 30km from Dalma and 25km from the Bengal border.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer Saba Alam Ansari said, "Generally, the elephants from Dalma migrate to Bengal in August-September and return to their habitat in February-March. But there has been a deviation in their behaviour as around 24 elephants have started moving towards Bengal."

The DFO said the reason for their untimely movement was intermittent rain causing vegetation to grow along the migratory corridor connecting Dalma to West Midnapore and Bankura jungles in Bengal.

"There are over two dozen check-dams in the 55km-long elephant corridor between Dalma and West Midnapore and Bankura. And when there's vegetation around, elephants come out of Dalma," said the senior forest officer.

Interestingly, two more herds of elephants from Bengal are currently stationed at Pochakholi and Rajabasa jungles at Chakulia block in Ghatshila sub-division.

Chakulia forest range officer Gorakh Ram said he had never seen movement of elephants in such large numbers during mid-summer.

"Two herds comprising 11 and 13 elephants in each are anchored in Pochakoli and Rajabasa jungles which fall under my range. These elephants are from Bengal and they are here since the past two days," said Ram.



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Wild elephants trample elderly woman to death in Nilgirs

Udhagamandalam: An 83-year-old woman was trampled to death by wild elephants near Nadugani in Gudalur taluk in the Nilgiris on Thursday when she was going to the toilet located outside her house.

The deceased was identified as K Chinnakaruppaye, 83, of Amaikulam. “She came out of her house around 6.30am to go to the toilet located outside it. Two female elephants roaming there attacked her and she died on the spot,” said P K Dileep, district forest officer, Gudalur division.

The body was sent to the Gudalur government hospital for postmortem. After the autopsy, the body was handed over to her family members.

“An initial compensation of 50, 000 was handed over to the family members of the deceased. After procedural formalities, the remaining 2.50 lakh will be issued to them,” Dileep said.

Meanwhile, the elephants were chased away from the residential locality. “We are monitoring the movement of elephants to avoid further casualty,” the forest official said.

 


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4 elephants killed by speeding train in India

A HERD of four elephants including an infant has been mown down by a speeding train in eastern India, in the worst incident of its kind since 2012.

A freight train travelling through a forest known to be an elephant corridor in the state of Odisha slammed into the elephants in the early hours of Monday morning. In the past decade, at least 22 elephants have been killed on train tracks in the state, reported the Hindustan Times.

 The latest incident occurred some 20km away from the Sambalpur elephant reserve, with forest officials believing the animals had come from the park.

“Although there was no elephant movement in the area for the past three to four months, the railway authorities were duly informed to reduce train speed in that section,” said a representative of the local forest authorities, Sushant Kumar as quoted by The Hindu.

“Besides, they were also requested to follow guidelines including making continuous hooting along the stretch,” he said.

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Warning system to prevent man-animal conflict

The early-warning system being installed at Ayyankolly, near Pandalur, on Saturday. The Gudalur Forest Division has installed an early-warning system near a school in Ayyankolly in Pandalur, to inform residents about the movement of elephants in the area. Bitherkad Forest Range Officer, C.

Manoharan, said that the system installed near Swami Vivekananda Saraswati Vidyalaya has an alarm and lights that would go on when animals cross sensor attached to it. It will help people to take precautionary measures, he said. The school was chosen to install the system, as elephants used to get close to the school compound on a regular basis. District Forest Officer (Gudalur Division), P.K.

Dileep, who had come up with the idea of installing an early warning system in the area, said that efforts to prevent man-animal conflicts was an ongoing process. The forest department was taking many measures to prevent fatalities in the region, he added..

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Radio alerts about tusker trouble

The state forest department, which launched 11 quick response teams (QRT) to tackle instances of man-animal conflict on Thursday, is planning to air radio alerts, primarily about elephant movement, twice a day to minimise damage to life and property.

"We have tied up with Radio Dhoom. Everyday, at 10am and 5pm, two bulletins on elephant movement will be aired by them, specifying villages and districts. We are currently preparing sample bulletins which will be aired in a week on real time basis," said conservator of forests (wildlife and silviculture division), Kamlesh Pandey.

In Jharkhand, man-animal conflicts are a regular affair. As per statistics collated by Project Elephant, a conservation programme under the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, 161 people have died since 2014 in the state in conflicts involving elephants.

The idea behind the 11 QRTs launched on Thursday is to respond to such threats effectively. According to forest department sources, each vehicle will have six forest guards. But a formal rollout of the fleet is likely to take at least two months more.

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Elephants trample a youth to death in Srikakulam

Tension has gripped the Kothuru Mandal in Srikakulam district as a 32-year-old man got killed by a herd of elephants near Ponnaturu village. The victim, Tampitaguda Kumar, was trampled to death on Saturday night by a couple of elephants that were roaming in the area it has been reported. Kumar’s dead body was discovered in the early hours of Sunday.

Local people claim that the elephants have been coming to the city in search of food and water during the summer and are killing people. With Saturday’s event proving to be the 23rd case in the recent past, the locals are petrified and have asked the local officials and concerned departments to alert them on the movement of the elephants. It has also been learned that the villagers had a heated argument with the officials on Sunday, for allegedly neglecting their plea to send the tuskers to a zoological park. The officials, on the other hand, said that the matter was in Supreme Court and transferring the animals immediately wasn’t easy.

The rise in temperatures is being cited as one of the major reasons why the jumbos have started causing a ruckus in the area. 11 forests are known to be spotted in the area, with seven of them being new in the area, a senior official told TOI.

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Elephant rescued from traffickers

AGRA: In a six-day rescue operation carried out by Wildlife SOS in collaboration with UP forest department and police personnel, a 44-year-old elephant was rescued from a group of wildlife traffickers.

The elephant had spent nearly four decades in illegal custody and was found to be suffering from chronic medical problems like progressive blindness, arthritis, degenerative joint disorder and foot issues — all pointing to severe neglect, lack of medical care and improper diet, according Wildlife SOS officials.

After several days of investigation, the chief wildlife warden, UP forest department, shifted the pachyderm to Wildlife SOS Elephant Care and Conservation Centre (ECCC) in Mathura where it will be under lifetime care and treatment.

"The forest officers were keeping tabs on movement of this elephant, called Priyanka, for nearly a year to gather evidence," said a member of the Wildlife SOS team.

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Migration of elephants to lower ranges keep Uttarakhand forest officers at toes

Migration of pachyderms from high altitude to lower ranges have become a menace for the Uttarakhand forest department as it continuously battles for the conservation of elephants as well as securing human habitation.

A 25-year-old tusker near Roorkee on Sunday got trapped in high tension wires and died on the spot. About a fortnight ago, elephants blocked movement of traffic on the main Rishikesh-Dehradun road.

The settlements of Balawala, Raiwala and others in the belt are in the constant attack of elephants.

“It’s time when elephants after travelling several miles reach to lower ranges. In search of food, they end up posing threat to people,” Digvijay Singh Khati, chief wildlife warden, told HT.

In Uttarakhand, 1,346 elephants have reported in 2007 following which the state reported 1839 individuals in 2017 national census-an increase of 493 elephants. The hill state was second after Arunachal Pradesh in recording increase in the number of pachyderms.

A whopping increase of elephants may leave conservationists with a big smile, but at the same time, it also draws attention towards growing conflict.

Some key areas in Lansdowne, Haridwar, Terai and Dehradun are fast becoming hotspots for elephant conflict.

“Encroachment in wildlife areas is a common problem. But a key point behind this conflict is blockage of elephant corridors. The long-ranging animal is not able to reach to water bodies due to which it enters human habitation,” said Rajeev Mehta, former honorary wildlife warden of Rajaji Tiger Reserve.

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Elephant creates panic in Kovaipudur

Tension prevailed in some of the residential areas near Kovaipudur when an elephant strayed into the locality late on Sunday.

The movement of the elephant was captured in a surveillance camera of a house at 9.10 p.m. Most of the residents knew the presence of the elephant in the locality very late as they were glued to television watching the India-Pakistan cricket match. The elephant damaged the gate of a house and a few trees. Forest staff who reached the spot burst crackers to scare the elephant back into the forest around 1.30 a.m. on Monday.

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Ten elephant corridors in Odisha viable for restoration

Ten of the 14 proposed elephant corridors identified to facilitate unhindered movement of jumbos and prevent their inbreeding have been found viable for restoration in Odisha.

Raman Sukumar, noted elephant expert and professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, said not all the 14 elephant corridors identified by the State government can be restored for a variety of reasons.

Prof. Sukumar has been roped in by the State government to prepare a management plan for elephant reserves, assess carrying capacity of forests with respect to elephant population and firm up an action plan for the future.

‘Need to be realistic’


“We are assessing which are the viable corridors that can be protected and strengthened for elephant movement. There is no point in drawing a line on a map identifying corridors. We need to be realistic,” he said speaking to reporters here recently.

“I am not in favour of large-scale land acquisition. Land is a very sensitive issue. We have to identify very strategic area that holds the corridor almost like a crutch. We will require small land parcel to stitch the corridors,” he said.

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