COIMBATORE: Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden Dr Shekhar Kumar Niraj, along with the Coimbatore forest division officials, trekked railway lines A and B in Madukkarai for seven km on Sunday to assess the steps taken by Southern Railway officials and forest department to prevent wild elephant deaths caused by speeding trains.
He also requested the Southern Railway officials to immediately demolish concrete walls raised at five locations to facilitate the free movement of wild elephants. The chief wildlife warden said, "Measures such as vista clearances and solar light installation along line A have been taken."
"On the forest side, the slopes are extremely steep and fragile. They could be dangerous for elephants and other wildlife who want to cross this area and need to be levelled. Residents of the area informed us that express and fast trains passing this stretch only blow horns occasionally. But that is against the standard operating procedure and the guidelines," he added.
Sources said the chief wildlife warden and railway officials inspected the corridors between two major points - Coonoor and Kallar railway stations in the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) - on Saturday and asked the Southern Railway officials to demolish walls raised in five locations to ease movement of wild elephants.
He asked the officials to level concrete structures obstructing the movement of wild animals and not initiate any other construction on these stretches.
The official said they spotted a herd of elephants struggling cross a concrete wall. The design of the wall is such that calves cannot cross them. These walls should immediately go, he added. "We have identified 30 retaining walls obstructing the movement of wild elephants and larger ungulates like Indian gaur. We found plastic waste disposed of clothes, food wrappers and other household garbage dumped along the railway tracks. They need to be cleared," Niraj added
Problem of wild animals feeding on plastic waste and garbage is not new. Deliberate and immediate efforts are important to curb this risk to wildlife. Rising garbage piles have become a menace on railway tracks. These waste even attract wild animals to the tracks and they get fatally hit by trains.
Many such incidents have been in the news recently. Further, the State forest department advised the Railways to cover open drainage shafts along the tracks of NMR.