Elephant-Train collisions: Five recommendations to be submitted to Minister – Daily Mirror

In the wake of the elephant-train collision along the Northern and Eastern railway lines, a team of 14 officials of the Railway Department and the Wildlife Conservation appointed for preventing elephant-train collisions had come up with five recommendations to prevent the disaster.

The team had engaged in the observation of elephant transit points along the Northern and Eastern railway lines from Mahawa Railway station, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Thalaimannar and Kankasanthurai from October 11-14.

The team was appointed on the instruction of the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva to observe elephant transit points along the Northern and Eastern railway lines and to make recommendations in preventing elephant-train collisions.

The ministry said around 12 elephants have died within a short period due to elephant-train collisions.

The observation team to submit five recommendations to the Minister based comprehensive plan which had been formulated by a committee of intellectuals and academics to resolve this issue.

The final committee report, plan and financial estimate for the implementation of recommendations would be handed over to the Minister by October 25.

The five recommendations are: clearing of shrubs in an area up to 30 metres on either side of the railway track, enforcing train speed limits, building paths (overpasses and underpasses) for elephant crossings on multiple locations, removal of obstructions in elephant crossings at locations with bridges and building of electric fences at places where elephants enter.

The observation team comprised R.A. Sumanaweera, Director, Elephant Conservation of the Wildlife Department, Suranga Jayawardana, Officer in charge of Engine Drivers, Department of Railways, Chaminda Perera, District Transport Inspector, Department of Railways and Irosh Perera, Project Director, Elephant Collisions, Department of Railways.(Darshana Sanjeewa)

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Another jumbo dies on track

Elephants’ death on the railway tracks continuing, another died on Haridwar-Dehradun tracks near Motichur forest range just four kms ahead of Raiwala junction on Tuesday, the fourth such death over the past one and half year. It is learnt that female elephant aged around 34 years was mowed down by speeding Kathgodam Express around midnight. The forest officers claimed that they had warned the loco pilot of the jumbo movement around the tracks and asked him to bring down the speed of the train sufficiently, a warning which the loco pilot refused to heed. However, the wild life lovers rejected such claims, saying that it was nothing but the long-continuing pass the buck game.

It is further learnt that a team of doctors was rushed to the spot where the jumbo was lying injured immediately after the incident, but it succumbed around 5 am.

Quizzed over continuation of such on the track deaths of the elephants, the principal chief conservator of forests, Uttarakhand, Jai Raj termed the death very unfortunate. “We are all deeply sad and an emergency meeting has been called on Wednesday where the officers of Wildlife Institute of India would be present. We would discuss things threadbare and a strategy would be chalked out to stop recurrence of such unfortunate deaths. We would find out whether forest patrolling is continuing and whether there is a breach in our , coordination with the railway officials,” he said.


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Speeding train kills elephant in Rajaji Tiger Reserve

A female elephant was killed after being run over by a speeding train in Rajaji Tiger Reserve on Tuesday, a forest official said.
The 35-year-old elephant was part of a group of 17 elephants crossing rail tracks parallel to NH-58 in Himalayan colony at 12:05 am on Tuesday when the high-speed Dehradun-Kathgodam Express was passing by, the official said.
While forest staff tried to alert the train driver, he did not slow down the train, resulting in the death of the elephant.
The death comes despite claims of preventive measures being taken by the Rajaji Tiger Reserve authority and railways.
Park patrolling teams were on duty near the accident site and manually signalled the train driver to stop.
Park employee Roshanlal said they tried to aware the loco pilot by showing torch light as there were more than a dozen elephants in human habitat area, trying to cross the railway track.
Rajaji Tiger Reserve director Sanatan Sonkar said it was a shocking incident for which both the park management and railways has been working jointly to curb such incidents.
“We are investigating this matter and if found guilty, we will file case against the train driver and are also taking steps to lessen such accidents by putting up censors and camera traps,” he added.
Another park official, on condition of anonymity, said many times train drivers don’t follow the minimum speed limit and take precautions.


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Post-mortem will confirm which train killed 2 elephant calves: DCF

MANGALURU: The forest department has booked a case against Indian Railways after two elephant calves, one which was eight-months-old and another about 18-months-old, were found dead beside railway tracks deep inside the Shiradi Ghat forest, between Subrahmanya and Yedakumari railway stations, on Monday morning.
Sivaram Babu M, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), confirming this to TOI, said veterinarians conducted the post-mortem at the spot, and the carcasses were later cremated near Yedakumeri on Monday.

He said that under sections of the Karnataka Wildlife Protection Act, an FIR was registered at the jurisdiction police station. “Only after the post-mortem report is released, can we ascertain which train caused the death of the jumbos. The reports will have the time of death, and based on that time-frame, one can find out which train passed that stretch at that time,” he said. This is the first such death of elephants in the recent past, due to trains, on this stretch.

It is suspected that a train carrying goods to Bengaluru from Mangaluru, may have hit the two male calves, while they were crossing the track.

Sivaram said the station master of the Yedakumari Railway Station informed the Forest Department about the incident on Monday morning. The station in-charge was informed about the incident by the loco-pilot of a train passing the stretch.

Quoting veterinarians’ preliminary reports, Sivaram said the death is due to accident, where the train engine must have hit the jumbos in the ghat section. The animals were found dead in the slopes of the Western Ghats, deep inside the forest.


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Freight Train Kills 4 Elephants in India, Including a Calf

NEW DELHI — A speeding freight train traveling through eastern India on Monday barreled into a herd of elephants as they were crossing railroad tracks, killing a calf and three adult animals, an official said.

The official, Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife expert in Odisha State, where the accident occurred, said the train was traveling at 75 miles an hour in a protected stretch of forest near the village of Teladihi around 3:30 a.m. when it struck a bull elephant, two females and a calf. The speed limit there is around 20 miles an hour, he said by telephone.

“At such a high speed, there’s no chance the elephants would have survived,” Mr. Mohanty said, adding that he had called for an investigation. “This is a big violation.”

Hundreds of elephants have been killed in India over the past 20 years, and deaths attributed to trains appear to be on the rise.

As mining and development projects shrink the country’s forests, Indian wildlife experts say, elephants in search of food have been forced to wander farther from their natural habitats.


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Elephant deaths: PIL filed in Gauhati High Court

Two wildlife photographers from Guwahati have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in Gauhati High Court asking it to direct the Assam forest department, the Union ministry of forest and environment and the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) to check the death of elephants.

In the PIL, petitioners Jugal Bharali and Rasel Hussain appealed to the court to direct all the three to have a detailed time-bound working plan for the protection of elephants from being hit by trains in the state, The Telegraph reported. They said at least 35 elephants were killed by speeding trains in Assam between 1990 and 2006 and a similar number had died in the past two months.

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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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Elephant run over by train

An elephant was run over by a train in the Lalkunwan area of Nainital district last evening. The tusker died on the spot. Villagers informed the forest authorities about the accident, following which officials reached the spot. The elephant sustained severe head injuries and its both tusks were broken. After a post-mortem examination, the elephant was buried.

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Prompt action saves jumbos from accident

GUWAHATI: Prompt action by railway and forest staff averted a mishap when a herd of 73 elephants came close to the railway tracks between Jugijan and Hojai stations under the Lumding division on Tuesday night.

The Dibrugarh-Amritsar Express was crossing the point at 7.40pm. "Railway and forest staff on duty immediately informed and signalled the loco pilot to stop the train. As a result, the train could be controlled and the entire herd of 73 elephants was allowed to cross the railway track. After that, the train resumed its journey. Thus, an imminent collision was avoided due to timely action and close coordination among forest and railway officials," Northeast Fronter Railway chief public relations officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said.

Sharma added that the same herd crossed the railway track again at 5.17am on Wednesday.
Two elephants were mowed down by a train on the outskirts of the city last month. NFR said railway authorities have been issuing temporary speed restrictions and caution orders as and when intimation on elephant movement is received from on-duty railway or forest officials, while permanent speed restrictions are imposed on notified elephant corridors.

It added that over 12 imminent elephant-train collisions were averted last winter.
Last year, at least seven elephants died due to collision with trains. Most of the jumbo casualties were outside the identified vulnerable locations where elephants normally cross the railway tracks.

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