About Rail and Elephant, and things in between- Part I

A recent visit to Assam presented cases of railway lines in close proximity to forests and its inhabitants. Somewhere the railway is parallel to a highway, sometimes sandwiched between a village road and a settlement and sometimes between a village road and a wildlife sanctuary. The complexity of the landscape from an ecological perspective is high and so is the linear infrastructure mosaic in this landscape. The impacts of the railway line have been researched across different themes but are the recognized safeguard la carte or are part of set guidelines irrespective of landscape characteristics.

Perhaps Uttarakhand presents one of the most popular example of safeguard for railway crossing a wildlife habitat. The railway line from Delhi to Dehradun provides scenic beauty while crossing Shiwalikh forests but undeniably, was considered a deathly track a few years back.? The railway track of the Haridwar-Dehradun section passes for approximately 18 km across the forests of Haridwar, Motichur, and Kansrao. Certain parts of this railway track proved evidently dangerous for elephants due to sharp turnings, embankments, and elevated tracks. The elephant or the loco pilot could not assess the approaching train or the animal on the track to avoid the collision timely. According to the report of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), there were 18 elephant deaths due to railway collisions between 1987 and 2001. After the efforts of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the Forest Department, and Indian Railway the elephant mortality was zero for ten years 2002-2012. The efforts included coordination with the Railway Department to strategize the mitigation strategy inside the forest areas and make the loco-drivers more aware of the animal crossing points. The staff of the Forest Department deputed in Railway control offices were to liaise with Railway and elephant trackers engaged by the Forest Department for timely action by alerting station master and loco pilots. However, as per said reports, in 2013 the death of an elephant happened on a railway track breaking this long spell of elephant and railway co-occurrence. For this lapse, Railways was requested to revisit its mitigation efforts and also abide by the speed limit of 40-50 kmph inside forests. This also raised the concern for possible future conflict due to the electrification of railways which was becoming a big part of the Government of India's vision plan for a Greener future. The 12th five-year plan (2012-17) of Indian Railways had a target of electrification of 6500 RKM of tracks. Keeping the possible threat in mind, the 32nd Standing Committee discussed railway electrification in Rajaji National Park between Haridwar and Dehradun. The decision on the proposal was the following as quoted:

·?????? A Joint patrolling of the track by the State Government and Railways with increased team members and in due course, sensor-based technologies can be utilized for tracking the movement of animals in the vicinity of the track

·?????? Railways should abide by the speed limit of the trains, up to 35 km/h during night and 40 km/h during day time.

·?????? Railway should fund and erect a fence at identified patch using scrap rails, to avoid movement in identified vulnerable areas

·?????? Railways should take action to clear underneath the railway bridges of debris to facilitate their use as underpasses. The slope of the embankment should be cleared too.

·?????? Railway should take action to clear bushes on 10m width on both sides of the track for visibility.

·?????? Railway should maintain the height of electric towers above 5.95m

· Railways should strictly see to it that no dumping of garbage on the track within the national park is being done.

·?????? Railway was directed to undertake a sensitization program for railway field staff including loco drivers.

Although imposition of suitable speed restrictions in identified vulnerable locations became a norm for most of the forest areas in India especially due to Rajaji, Elephant, and the ruling of Honourable Uttarakhand High Court, electrification posed other challenges too.? If categorized, the Indian railway falls into different zones (16 zones, apart from the metro). These zones cross various biogeographic regions of India and habitats of different animals. However, few of the railway zones posed significant animal mortality compared to others despite of the mitigation strategy in vogue. As an answer to Rajya Sabha's question, the Ministry of Railways provided information on elephant death on railway tracks,s. As per the data (Following graph) North Eastern Railway had faced maximum elephant mortality on the track. The Government of Assam, Tripura, and West Bengal has acted on the cases of elephant mortality and developed coordination with North Eastern Railways to mitigate the conflict.

The Northeastern Railways is coming in overlaps with the habitat of diverse arboreal animals, a habitat that is getting heavily fragmented. The canopy bridges, as mentioned in an earlier post in this newsletter, should be designed very specific according to the species. The railway passing through Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary is already fragmenting the canopy habitat of Hoolock Gibbon. Still, there is a pressing issue to revisit the height of canopy bridge structures when electrification is on the cards. State Ministry and North East Frontier Railways should update the standard safeguard designed with reference to elephants, according to the ecology of other species too. Apart from speed regulation, vigilance, and joint patrolling, the various Zones of Railways are implementing signage board installation at suitable points to alert train drivers about elephants & and other animals' presence. However, the North East Frontier took technology help to reduce the conflict too. Amid the increasing number of elephant deaths in the country, in 2018, the Honourable Union Railway Minister announced an innovative ‘plan bee’ to prevent their deaths on the tracks of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR). The concept is to use a sound amplifier to play the buzzing sound of the beehive, which the animal can hear from about 600 meters. After testing in Assam, positive results were reported. However, studies question the habituation of elephants to bee sound if no negative trigger of live bee is attached to the sound. This encouraged the idea of Beehive fencing which has been found successful in Kerala and Kenya. In the said bee hive fencing, a wire fence is strung with beehives along the border of the village/area. The bee hive is populated with bees “bred” within the region. In Assam hanging solar fences have been used which are reported to be successful in western ghats too. Earlier In 2015, another physical barrier, the ‘railway line barrier’ was constructed by the Karnataka government, using steel rails from old railway tracks. However, the success of the railway line barrier fence is said to be more when used in complement with solar fencing.

Apart from the prevention mechanism in place for wildlife–railway conflict, the structural modification in the project plan of railway expansion is getting popular too. The Southern Railways commissioned the construction of an underpass for elephants in one Ettimadai - Walayar section (connecting Tamil Nadu and Kerala). The 60 ft wide and 20 ft high underpass is being finalized with “two composite girders for the underpass were launched by replacing the two temporary steel girders at the location ‘km 505A/400-500’ of ‘B’ line which passes through Madukkarai forest range of the Coimbatore Forest Division”. At the same time the, two other elephant states were also confirming the construction of overpass for animals in Jharkhand and Odisha. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) plans to construct viaducts in corridors near deepor beel, a wetland, a bird sanctuary, and a Ramsar site. The suggested total length of the viaducts is 3.5 km. The Government of Assam is supportive of the idea of construction of the underwater tunnel , under Brahmaputra, for railways too. Apart from such massive construction projects, there are small initiatives also being undertaken by the Forest Department to mitigate the conflict between elephants with rail. Tamil Nadu Forest Department and Assam Forest Department presented examples of creating a ramp for elephants to cross railway tracks safely.

Apart from actively implementing the safeguard in various cases across India, the challenges pose innovative thinking for railway tracks across different geographic and terrain landscapes. Engineering marvel is the need of the hour apart from coordination between departments managing wildlife and railway. Especially, railway zone-wise coordination with biogeographic-specific wildlife departments would definitely benefit in the current time and in the coming future too.

continuing in part too.

Acknowledgment: The site visit to Assam was undertaken via funding from USAID (ALIGN Project) under WWF India

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