Coimbatore to go hi-tech to stop elephant deaths

This is one of the many measures to be implemented by the forest department to reduce elephant death on tracks.
Coimbatore to go hi-tech to stop elephant deaths

COIMBATORE: To ensure zero casualties of wild elephants and guard them from speeding trains, officials of the Coimbatore forest division will install six e-surveillance cameras in railway tracks A and B at Solakkarai in Madukkarai forest. This is one of the many measures to be implemented by the forest department to reduce elephant death on tracks.

A proposal, that was readied soon after three wild elephants were killed after being hit by a train on November 26, has been sent to Chennai seeking funds. A console room for real time monitoring would be set up at Solakkarai check post. The wild elephants’ movements could be monitored through another control room at Coimbatore headquarters.

Once the tower camera detects elephant movement near the railway track, an alert will be sent to the console room and the railway and forest staff, and the Loco Pilots would be asked to slow down the train. Then, the tracking team would drive the elephant away from the track. “The purpose of long-range CCTV cameras is to capture footage, especially from vulnerable and potential threat areas,” said S Ramasubramanian Conservator of forest, Coimbatore district. Forest department did a satellite image-based landscape terrain analysis of both railway tracks at Solakkarai. Based on this, the surveillance camera installation locations were selected.

Speed gun
“Speed gun provides accurate measurements — from 0.1 miles per hour to 320mph. If the train breaches the speed limit, the console room will be intimated and instructions will be given to the Railways department. They will be set up at railway lines A and B,” added Ramasubramanian.

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