KOLKATA: Science could save elephants where
political will has failed. IIT-Delhi has designed heat-
and-motion sensors that can be fitted on railway
tracks to act as an early warning system on
movement of animals.
The device will be field-tested for the first time on
the 165-km tracks between North Bengal's Jalpaiguri
and Alipurduar, where 18 elephants have been run
over by trains this year alone. Last week, an express
train crushed six elephants at Jaldhaka, ramming one
of them through the rail bridge where the mangled
carcass hung for days as train and after train passed
over it. Fifty-two elephants have died in this
corridor since 2004.
An official of the ministry of environment and
forests confirmed receiving the proposal from IIT-
Delhi. "The institute was given the go-ahead in July
and there were plans to field-test the early-warning
device in Uttarakhand's Rajaji first. But keeping in
mind the rising jumbo deaths on North Bengal's
killer tracks, we might run the pilot test in the
Dooars forests ," the official told TOI.
The early warning system is being developed under
the leadership of professor Subrat Kar of IIT-Delhi.
It consists of a series of heat and motion sensing
devices that can be placed at different points of the
railway tracks. These can detect body heat or the
movement of animals that come too close to the
tracks and the information will be relayed from one
device to another in microseconds so that the
authorities can take evasive action to stop animal
deaths.
"More than 100 such devices, with heat and body
sensors and cameras, can be installed on a 4-km
stretch of the tracks. As soon as it detects the
presence of an animal, it records the message and
sends through the network of devices. The
information is transferred to the officials at the
nearest station or signal post in real time," said
Wildlife Trust of India's (WTI) Sandeep Tiwari, who
has held discussions with the IIT-Delhi team on
using the device at Rajaji National Park.
Anil Kumar Singh, head of WTI's conflict mitigation
department, believes the device needs to be tested
urgently, considering the rise in elephant deaths in
this corridor. He, however, cautions that it is not
foolproof. "The device can't be installed on the
entire stretch. So, the risk persists. The ideal move
should be to try and discourage elephants from
coming on the tracks," he suggested.
Most such accidents take place near curvatures,
where visibility is poor, he pointed out. "If some
vegetation can be removed, it will improve visibility
and also discourage elephants from moving into the
area. The possibility of fencing both sides of tracks
can also be explored," he said, adding that the
Indian government can take tips from the road
animal detection (RAD) system used in countries like
US and Switzerland to check animal deaths on the
roads.
Ministry officials are meeting their railway
counterparts in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss ways to
prevent elephant deaths . "Installing this device will
take some time. Till then we will push the railways
officials to restrict the speed limit to 25kmph
through such corridors," an official said.
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