A young adult female wild elephant, presumably 25 years old, was fatally hit by a train near Kanjikode railway crossing on Monday late night in a second such incident of elephant death on a rail track within a month in the Walayar range of Palakkad forest division.
The accident occurred around 11 p.m. when the Chennai-bound Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Mail hit the elephant, which strayed from a herd. The herd was crossing the railway tracks.
Forests Minister A.K. Saseendran said that a preliminary probe found that the train failed to maintain the stipulated speed limit on the forest stretch. He said the railway authorities did not take care and therefore, a case under relevant provisions of the Wildlife Act was lodged against the loco pilot.
The fatal incident has raised an alarm with senior Forest and Railways officers, who held an emergency meeting and decided to reduce the speed of trains between Kottekkad and Kanjikode to 35 kmph. The officials also decided to erect solar fences and solar lamps along the stretch to avoid further accidents.
Till now, the speed limit on the stretch which is frequented by will elephants was 45 kmph.
According to Palakkad Divisional Forest Officer Joseph Thomas, “Reduction of speed limit to 45 kmph was brought in accordance with the orders of the High Court to avoid elephant fatalities.”
Following the accident, Forest officers said, that though the elephant was hit on the head and a fell, it rose and limped back to the forest, were it died after a couple of hours. The carcass was buried on Tuesday afternoon after a post-mortem.
K. Vijayanandan, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Eastern Circle; Arun Kumar Chaturvedi, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Palakkad; Jayakrishnan S., Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM), Palakkad; and Mr. Thomas were among those who led the meeting.
Although the speed limit between Kottekkad and Kanjikode will be reduced to 35 kmph, the Railways will continue the speed limit at 45 kmph between Kanjikode and Madukarai.
The CCF, in a statement here on Tuesday, said that the Railways had agreed to cooperate with the Forest department probe in the accident. The CCF said that solar fencing would be erected on both sides of the tracks to prevent elephant crossings. The Railways will spend Rs. 4.6 crore to install 600 solar lamps along the tracks.
The Forest department will seek the support of the BSNL to install AI cameras to monitor the movements of elephants in sensitive areas.
Previous incident
On April 13, another female wild elephant died after being bit by a goods train in the Walayar range.
The jumbo was alive for a few days, but was unable to stand up due to its injuries.
Despite efforts of the Forest department in providing the animal with medical aid, and food and water, the elephant succumbed to its injuries.
