Wildlife, Railways to work hand in glove - Minimising elephant deaths

By Ifham Nizam

Steps will be taken to minimise elephant deaths due to train accidents with the assistance of the Railway and Wildlife Departments in the Anuradhapura District.

Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S. M. Chandrasena told The Island yesterday that an analysis on how elephants were killed, showed that it was mostly due to the mistakes of humans.

"Most of these elephants are killed by trains that function during odd hours. Being a very intelligent animal, elephants are used to the timing of trains etc. But whenever special trains operate, there are elephant deaths," he added.

He said that it was not a herculean task to clear the thick jungle close to the railway track. "I was instructed by Wildlife Department officials to cut down or clear the jungle areas as it would attract more elephants with lush green grass. So we have to be careful in our planning," he added.

Plans are underway, to minimise these accidents. In this regard, a workshop would be organized next month for all railway employees, including drivers and guards, who would undergo a programme on how to minimise elephant-train accidents, the Wildlife Department says.

A large number of elephants were killed due to train accidents in the Anuradhapura district.

Elephant survey report out next week

Meanwhile, ‘The Island’ learns the much debated report of the first island wide survey of elephants will be released next week. The Digital and Computer Science Department of the Peradeniya University has commenced sorting the data on the elephant survey, Wildlife Director General H. D. Ratnayake said yesterday.

The Survey was carried out from August 11 to 13 covering all parks and reserves where elephants freely roam.

According to the Director General, all data has been computerized, and it includes the number of elephants in each herd, their sizes, assumed ages, their sex and other physical features. "If records of a herd were duplicated the programme automatically nullify the duplication," he added.

The data is being sorted out under the supervision of the Director General and the Dean of the Science Faculty of the Peradeniya University, Prof. Parakrama Karunarathna. Nearly 40 university students are also assisting in this process to minimise numerical mistakes with scientific methods being given priority.

The Wildlife Department informs that this survey will help to find solutions to the human-elephant conflict and proper conservation and management of elephants.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=33237