T.N. Forest Department, Southern Railway officials inspect tracks near Coimbatore to improve safety of wild elephants

Officials from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department and the Palakkad Division of Southern Railway inspected railway lines passing through the Madukkarai forest range in Coimbatore district to chalk out plans to improve safety measures for wild elephants.

Officials from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department and the Palakkad Division of Southern Railway inspected railway lines passing through the Madukkarai forest range in Coimbatore district to chalk out plans to improve safety measures for wild elephants.

The officials also discussed whether additional underpasses would be required to facilitate the easy movement of wild elephants in this region.

The Southern Railway has opened one underpass for elephants and completed the work on a second one on ‘B’ line, which is one of the two railway lines between Ettimadai and Walayar railway stations.

District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj said the joint inspection was to identify additional requirements to ensure safe elephant crossings and to save them from getting knocked down by speeding trains.

“We discussed whether a physical structure could be developed on the sides of the track on ‘B’ line to channel the elephants and other animals towards the two underpasses. Barriers that have to be removed have also been identified,” he said.

Divisional Engineer Anshul Bharti and Additional Divisional Engineer Bibhash Paswan from Palakkad Division joined the Forest Department team along with loco pilots and other officers, for the inspection.

Since poor visibility on the sides of the track at night is one of the impediments for loco pilots, the Railways is working to install solar-powered lights that function at night. This would enable the loco pilots to spot, from a distance, wild animals that come close to the tracks.