GUWAHATI, Dec 18 - Expressing deep concern over high number of elephant deaths due to mowing down by speeding trains in recent days in the State, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed the State Forest Department and Northeast Frontier Railway to improve communication and coordination to control such incidents in a meeting held here today.
The Chief Minister advocated for devising a strategy to tackle rising number of such incidents and favoured joint monitoring of railway tracks on daily basis. He also instructed the Forest Department to adopt an aggressive approach.
With a view to sharing real time information from the ground to Railway Control Room, the Chief Minister directed to immediately constitute local level monitoring committee involving the people living in adjoining areas of the track.
The members of the committees will inform the Railway Control Room whenever movement of elephants is noticed so that it can be passed on to train drivers for controlling the speed. The local level monitoring committees will be constituted in all the 29 elephant corridors falling within railway tracks. For improved communication, the Railway Control Rooms will be manned by both Forest and Railway personnel.
A joint coordination committee involving the Forest Department and the Railways under the leadership of respective sub-divisional officers and circle officers will also be constituted for monitoring the joint activities of the Forest Department and Railways such as joint survey of railway track, cleaning of jungles, streamlining of slopes near tracks, installation of signages at vulnerable points with emergency contact number, etc.
The Chief Minister also directed the Forest and railway officials to travel all the vulnerable railway tracks immediately so that all future casualties can be stopped.
Underlining the need for a long-time strategy to stop all such incidents in future, Sonowal said that the Forest Department has to improve their communication network and adopt new technologies.
He instructed the Department to implement advance warning system, solar lights with alarms at vulnerable railway tracks, use of remote sensor and GPS indicator insertion at leaders of elephant herds to locate their movement.
Sonowal also stressed on the need to study the psychology of elephants by the Forest Department and construction of need-based over pass and under pass at railway tracks by the Railways.