Odisha: Acoustic sensors to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks
BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to prevent elephant deaths due to train mishaps, the State government is planning to use acoustic sensors on railway tracks. PCCF (Wildlife) Shashi Paul, who convened a meeting with Forest department officials and Gujarat-based Ear to the Wild Foundation that works in wildlife conservation through technology recently, said the system will be introduced on pilot basis in Rairakhol- Sambalpur stretch or the elephant corridor in Dhenkanal district.
The Foundation had earlier made a presentation on the technology and its models. “The prototype presented by the Foundation is different from other models. However, we have asked the organisation to submit a detailed proposal in this regard,” he said.
While other models track elephants first and send signals to the driver, the sensors in this model will trace train when it approaches 3-4 km closer to the elephant corridor and send signal to the siren posts to alert the loco-pilot of the train for slowing down the speed. The sensors will help in detecting the movement of elephant herd on railway tracks. The system will also be helpful in driving away the jumbos and lowering the speed of trains passing through elephant corridors, he added.
The speeding trains in elephant corridors have proved fatal for the gentle giants in the State as close to 30 jumbos have lost their lives due to train accidents in last one decade. Two elephants were killed in February this year after being hit by a speeding goods train near Mahipani in Sundargarh district.
In December last year, trains had also killed two elephants on the 33-km Jujumara-Haribari railway track under Sambalpur Sadar forest range. Wildlife officials said though control rooms have been set up in Khurda, Dhenkanal and other divisions to check such mishaps, they are looking for use of technology to deal with it more efficiently.