TN ramps for elephants to save themselves from train

Models walking along the ramps are familiar sights in TV channels. But one can see wild elephants too walking along “ramps”.. Any doubt? Travel between Coimbatore and Palakkadu stretch of the Railways by train and one could get the sight of elephants slowly walking along the ramps exclusively built for them by the Tamil Nadu Government. These ramps are not for fashion shows but to save the elephants from being run over by the trains.  

The stretch between Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Palakkadu  in Kerala is a pleasant experience for an average traveller. It is the stretch when trains chug from the stretch of vast dry lands into the greenery of Kerala. The fortunate ones could see wild boars and jackals when the train passes through the western ghats forest. What makes the stretch interesting is the thick growth of wild bushes and the green hills nearby.

The 25 km stretch is also known as the graveyard of wild elephants. The last 38 years  saw 18 elephants getting killed when they were hit by trains. In pitch darkness, it is difficult for loco pilots to make out the wild elephants crossing the tracks in search of water and vegetables. Though elephants are sensitive to light and sound, they are slow to react when the speeding trains approach them because of the sharp curves and wild growth on both sides.

The wild growth on both sides of the tracks were cleared so that the loco pilots could get to see the elephants.The elephants won’t be able to see the trains coming from their rear or sides because of the natural restrictions of their eye sight.

The forest department was adamant that the Railway should provide a solution to the ever increasing number of elephant deaths . But the railways were handicapped by many drawbacks. There were no resources for planning and executing measures to save the life of wild animals. "The forest department insisted that we should ecelarate the speed of the trains in this stretch. But there are technical issues associated with the gradient of the tracks and speed of the trains," said a senior Railway official.  Though the forest department had resources , bureaucratic callousness came in the way as policy makers were not that attached to wild elephants. More over the pachyderms were reportedly engaged in trespassing into neighboring villages for robbing agricultural   crops painstakingly cultivated by the farmers in lands which lie near the reserve forests.

It was then that Tamil Nadu Forest Department came out with the idea of building ramps in the stretches which reported maximum casualties of elephants. “We have seen elephants using the ramps 51 times and this is an inspiration for us. Cameras have been installed along the ramps and these have given pictures of elephants walking along them. There are watch towers built along the tracks and these are also getting sight of elephants using the ramp,” said a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department.. He also added that more and more stretches of ramps would be built after observing the present ones for some more time so that the elephant causalities could be controlled. 

Four  elephants were run over by trains in this stretch between June 2016 to November 2016 . Since the ramps were constructed, no elephant has been hit by trains and this is an interesting development,” the officer who did not want his name to be identified told The Pioneer.