Elephant sensors may come up on railway line to Sikkim

K. BALCHAND

To avoid accidents on upcoming Sevoke-Rangpo line

• To avoid accidents on upcoming line
• The line will pass through Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary

To get started a project that has been hanging for four years now for want of environment and forest clearance, the Railways have decided to install sensors to track the pachyderms present on or near rail tracks.

The Railway Ministry has sought a detailed report on the feasibility of the project in order to get approval for the construction of the first rail link to Sikkim which is estimated to cost Rs.1,340 crore.

The Sevoke (village in West Bengal) to Rangpo (in Sikkim) rail line will be the second to pass through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to Asiatic elephants and other endangered wildlife species.

The Union Ministry of Environment & Forests had put this project on hold fearing that the proposed rail link would endanger elephants, five of whom were killed in January alone.

The Railway Ministry has emphasised the urgency of the route not only to connect Sikkim with the rest of the country by putting it on the rail network, but also to speed up the economic development of the North-East region.

It ruled out the possibility of an alternative route as it would involve diplomatic channels to get Bangladesh on board.

The sensors would detect the presence of elephants along the tracks that pass through the protected forest area and alert the train driver of the impending risk to the herd, apply the breaks and sound the whistle.

Railway officials said the other possibility is to give the right of way to the elephants once they are sighted near the tracks adopting the system adopted in the Gir forest to protect lions after three or four of them were killed in the seventies. In such an arrangement the trains run only at a speed of 20 km per hour in the forest area and stop when the lion is sighted close to the track. The same system could be put in place in the Mahananda sanctuary.

Under the proposed project, the 51-km Sevoke-Rangpo line has been provided with 14 tunnels winding through the protected forests of Darjeeling and East Sikkim.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/elephant-sensors-may-come-up-on-railway-line-to-sikkim/article4387995.ece

Elephant kills woman in Sakleshpur tea estate

A woman was killed by an elephant in Kadumane Tea Estate in Sakleshpur taluk on Tuesday.

The tusker attacked Rani (50) when she was going to her workplace with a group of people. She died on the spot.

Rani is survived by her husband, Perumal, who works in a farmland in Tamil Nadu, two daughters and a son.

District Conservator of Forests R.N. Lakshman told The Hindu that the department would give Rs. 2 lakh to her family as an immediate compensation and later give an additional Rs. 3 lakh. — Staff Correspondent

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/elephant-kills-woman-in-sakleshpur-tea-estate/article4387853.ece

‘Pygmy’ elephant tethered

K.S. SUDHI

Forest officials say ‘pygmy elephant’ is a myth; blood samples to be tested

The calf elephant, which is purportedly a
‘pygmy’ elephant, photographed by
Sali Palode, a wildlife photographer, from
the Peppara forest region in Thiruvananthapuram.

The controversy over ‘pygmy elephant’ is raging even as an animal, which many believe is a pygmy, has landed in the custody of the Kerala Forest Department.

A team of forest veterinarians has tethered the animal at Paruthypally in Trivandrum Forest Division. Blood samples of the animal have also been collected, which could be used for settling the controversy.

Members of the Kani tribe in the Peppara forest area believe that elephants belonging to a dwarf race inhabit the Agasthyarkudam forest area. Sali Palode, a wildlife photographer, who claimed to have photographed the animal some five years ago, had recently captured the video images of a small tusker from Peppara.

Scientific studies had earlier confirmed the presence of genetically distinct type of the Asian elephants in Borneo Island. These elephants were smaller in size than its Asian cousins. The World Wildlife Fund website describes Borneo elephants as ones which are “baby-faced with oversized ears, plump bellies and tails so long they sometimes drag on the ground as they walk. They are also more gentle-natured than their Asian elephant counterparts.”

With the tethering of the animal at Peppara, Mr. Palode has raised the demand for a DNA profiling of the animal to ascertain its genetic character. “We firmly believe that pygmy elephants (Kallana in local parlance) do exist in the area, which can be confirmed through DNA tests,” he said.

However, the Forest officials dismissed the demand as they were convinced that it was not a pygmy elephant as believed by some people.

V. Gopinath, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala, said such a myth existed in the folklore of tribespeople alone.

The animal found at Peppara was shifted to a temporary enclosure in the forest itself after it was found in a weak condition. The Forest officials had been tracking it for few days and it seemed that the animal had developed infections. The herd might have abandoned the sick animal. If the calf cannot be rehabilitated, it will be shifted to an animal care centre of the department, Mr. Gopinath said.

R. Sreejith, a veterinary surgeon in the team looking after the animal, said the elephant was found in a dehydrated condition in the forests. It is a 6-year-old male calf elephant and it does not belong to the species of dwarf elephants. The condition of the animal has stabilised after it was administrated fluids. It has started eating fruits. The animal was fed with plantains, pineapple and fodder, he said.

The World Wildlife Fund website says the “DNA evidence proved these elephants were isolated about 300,000 years ago from their cousins on mainland Asia and Sumatra. Over time, they became smaller with relatively larger ears, longer tails and straighter tusks. Today, the pygmy elephants of Borneo are the smallest elephants in Asia,” according to the website.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/pygmy-elephant-tethered/article4388165.ece

Karnataka is now home to 6,072 elephants

BANGALORE: Karnataka is now home to 6,072 Asiatic elephants, 5,945 of which were spotted in the Mysore elephant reserve (MER) alone, according to the latest elephant census.

In search of water an elephant with his calf seen on the
Mysore road near the Assanur forest fringes, on Sunday.

The Karnataka Elephant Census 2012, conducted by the state forest department in May last year and carried out by the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, showed an increase in the state's elephant population since 2010 when their number stood at 5,800.

The average elephant population has been between 4,000 and 6,000 for the past 15 years in the state. The state is home to about 20% of the elephant population in the country. While the MER alone is home for 97% of the state's elephant population, the other districts account for only 127 elephants, the census said.

The census was carried out in two different methods - direct sighting of the elephants and the indirect method of checking the transact dung count. Waterhole observations were taken up to get an approximate idea of the population structure. The forest was demarcated on the basis of elephant population density.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Karnataka-is-now-home-to-6072-elephants/articleshow/18361115.cms

9 deer hunters land in prison

Coimbatore : As many as nine persons were arrested by the Sirumugai Forest Range officials on the charges of hunting spotted deer inside the reserve forest using country guns early on Tuesday morning.

Around 5.30 am, the forest officials heard loud gun shots from the forest area. Subsequently, a team of  officials, suspecting it to be the handiwork of poachers, combed the Thattapallam  area inside Sirumugai reserve forest in the eastern slopes of the Nilgiris.

Following a half-hour -long search inside the forest, the officials came across the group of poachers.  The poachers had already killed some deer near the Bhavani deer and were dividing the meat, when the officials caught them.      

As much as 27 kg of spotted deer meat, including the hide and legs, were seized from them, the officials said. A country gun, a knife used by them to hunt the deer and seven two-wheelers were also seized.

The accused were identified as Devaraj (35), Ravi (43), Rangasamy (43), Dineshkumar (19), Muthusamy (19), Vijayakumar (19), Sakthivel (29) Murugesan (29) and Vijayakumar (28). All were residents of  Sittepalayam village near the Sirumugai forest who cultivated bananas on land   ranging between one to two acres. “They are not habitual hunters. This is the first time they committed such an offence, ” Sirumugai forest ranger C Dinesh Kumar said.

According to another official, “after their first two attempts failed, they shot the spotted deer on its stomach from a distance of 25 feet.”

All of them were booked under the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, and the Tamil Nadu Forest Act 1982  and they were subsequently remanded in the Coimbatore Central Prison.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article1451525.ece

2 jumbos killed by train near Hosur

Anitha Jaishankar | KRISHNAGIRI 05th February 2013

One of the elephants that was run over by a train near Hosur on Monday | Express

Two elephants were killed and several others feared injured after a train on a broad gauge line ploughed into a herd of jumbos that were crossing the tracks near Hosur Industrial Town on Monday.

The incident sent shock waves among animal rights fraternity, especially since it brought back memories of a similar incident in 2003, when a herd of five was mowed down by a train hurtling down the track at top speed on the same stretch.

The frequency of such accidents also brought to the fore the deadlock between the Forest Department and the Railways with regard to the protection of animals from the trains plying on Hosur-Kelamangalam-Royakotta-Dharmapuri route.

In Monday’s incident, the herd of around 30 from the Udedurgam forest region was crossing the tracks near the Muthappan temple near Kelamangalam, when a passenger train bound for Bangalore from Dharmapuri ploughed into the jumbos.

A five-year old male jumbo was reportedly thrown 300 metres away in the impact, while another five-year-old female got caught under the train’s wheels and was dragged nearly 500 metres before the train was brought to a halt. Both the pachyderms were killed on the spot.

Meanwhile, the train also ploughed through the rest of the herd, sending the animals, many of them grievously injured, scurrying in all directions. The number of injured animals was yet to ascertained since many of them ran into the forests.

Upon getting the information, Dharmapuri conservator of forest Manjunath, district forest officer A K Ulaganathan, assistant conservator of forest Soundarajan, forest rangers Vinobaji, Sugumar, Palanisamy, Babu and Rabel Reddy rushed to the accident spot.

They were joined by a team of railway officials led by Bangalore division regional manager Anil Agarwal.

Recounting the possible chain of events, DFO Ulaganathan told Express that since the area was enveloped by thick mist early in the morning, the loco pilot could not properly  see the tracks and hence, dashed against the crossing herd.

“Due to the frequent elephant movement in this area in recent months, we had already alerted the railways to operate trains at slower speeds. The particular train was running at 40km/hr when the accident took place,” the DFO added.

In the light of Monday’s incident, the Forest Department has demanded that the Railways operate trains at a speed of 20 km/hr while crossing the stretch, he said, adding that the Railways has agreed to maintain a speed limit of 30 km/hr.

“The Forest Department has been creating trenches stretching for 50 km, separating the forest region from the human habitats in the Udedurgam reserved forest region in order to prevent elephants from straying into the villages or crossing the tracks. The trench work would be completed by March,” he added.

Monday’s accident also threw out of gear rail traffic along the stretch, with several passenger and express trains between Bangalore and Ernakulam via Hosur, Dharmapuri and Salem  being delayed for several hours.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article1450085.ece

Man trampled to death by rogue elephant

One person was trampled to death by an elephant while three other occupants of the car managed to escape at Saat Mod near Rishikesh on Monday evening.

In another incident two days ago, a woman on her way to Uttarkashi from Rishikesh on a motorcycle with her husband was trampled to death by an elephant near Bhadrakali. With this the number of persons killed by pachyderms in and around Rishikesh over the past one year has reached 18, it was told.

Satyadev of Dehra Dun was returning with three others in his car from Rishikesh on Monday evening when an elephant attacked the vehicle. Satyadev was caught by the animal as he tried to escape from the car and trampled to death.

Expressing anger over the Forest Department’s failure to keep elephants away from the highway, residents of Rishikesh and Dehra Dun have threatened to hold an indefinite dharna if the Government fails to take immediate action against the foresters who seemed to have failed in their duty despite repeated killings by the elephants in the Rishikesh region.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/man-trampled-to-death-by-rogue-elephant/article4384224.ece