The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Death of jumbos on tracks shocks wildlife enthusiasts

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Wednesday, Feb 06, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Death of jumbos on tracks shocks wildlife enthusiasts

P. Oppilli

‘More than 70 elephants died all over the country in train accidents’

The problem could be solved by erecting a physical barrier on the side of the track
Collaring an animal would help in tracking its movement

CHENNAI: The death of four elephants, including two tuskers, in Coimbatore on Monday has shocked the wildlife enthusiasts and Forest officials. Raman Sukumar, professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, said already the Government of India had set up a Committee to look into train accidents in which elephants got killed. The Committee would visit all the places in the country, where elephants got killed while trying to cross the track. Prof. Sukumar who is now in West Bengal said that unlike southern India elephants getting killed while trying to cross railway tracks is very common in West Bengal. “In my estimate more than 70 elephants died all over the country in train accidents in the last five years,” he said.

In Tamil Nadu and Kerala border near Walayar in Coimbatore district elephants regularly crossed railway tracks and entered the nearby human habitation. Prof. Sukumar said the problem could be solved by erecting a physical barrier for a few kilometres on the side of the track. This would help prevent animals straying into human habitation. He said a study must be taken up to ascertain as to why such a large herd of elephants entered the human habitation close to Coimbatore. Issues such as whether the pachyderms were disturbed in their original habitat or they got attracted by crops must be studied, Prof. Sukumar said.

The professor and his team had successfully fixed GPRS collars on a couple of crop-raiding elephants in West Bengal.

With the information decoded by the satellite station, the authorities were able to locate the movement of animals and were able to alert the local forest officials, thus reducing the chances of man-animal conflict. Collaring an animal would help in tracking its movement, the exact path it was using, the time of the year and the speed with which it was moving.

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