In a bid to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks, the Centre has decided to put a speed limit of 25 km/hr for both good and passenger trains passing through identified elephant habitats.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that this measure will be part of a seven-point agenda to stop elephants being run over by trains, especially in West Bengal and Odisha.
The SC, which is monitoring a PIl filed by one Shakti Prasad Nayak, had pulled up the Centre for not doing enough to prevent elephant deaths. On September 2, the court had asked the Centre to urgently propose long-term steps for creating alternate rail tracks and constructing ramps, underpasses, barricading, etc.
In its latest affidavit, the MoEF laid out a seven-point action plan. The affidavit filed by Mukund lal Srivastava, DIG in MoEF’s Wildlife Division said: “The problems of elephant deaths, particularly in West Bengal and Odisha, vary with locations. The utility of the measures depends on the conditions specific to the site. Hence, uniform measures for the whole elephant landscape in the country would not be appropriate.”
However, the Centre agreed to implement some measures on a short-term basis. This included imposition of speed restriction of 25 km/hr in all identified elephant habitats and movement tracks. In addition, the Centre even agreed to divert goods and un-scheduled trains on the most notorious Siliguri-Alipurduar line in North Bengal which passes through many eco-sensitive sanctuaries to another line passing through Falakata. This would be a stop-gap arrangement till the work on construction of a parallel track to Falakata was completed.
Under the Project Elephant launched by the Centre in 1991-92, a total of 28 elephant reserves have been notified by 14 States. The MoEF had also written to the West Bengal Government on July 8, 2014 to look into the feasibility of implementing “e-eye” in North Bengal. This was tested as a pilot project in the Corbett National Park to track animals and poachers and could even be used to forewarn train drivers of the presence of elephants near the rail tracks.
In addition, wireless sensors and a recent project undertaken by IIT, Delhi is also under consideration. The latter project was successfully tested in Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand that employs an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to track movement of elephants near railway lines. Besides, the Centre even proposes to erect fences and barricades on vulnerable railway stretches, easing of steep slopes on railway embankments in elephant landscapes, underpasses and ramps for elephants on identified stretches, and sensitisation of train drivers.