Elephant deaths near TN-Kerala border: Madras HC judges inspect railway tracks

Three judges from the Madras High Court carried out an inspection on the railway tracks passing through the Madukkarai forest range coming under the Coimbatore Forest Division on Sunday, April 10, to assess the steps taken by the forest Department and Railways to prevent the deaths of elephants. Justices R Subramanian, N Sathish Kumar and GK Ilanthiraiyan inspected the tracks between Ettimadai on the outskirts and Walayar in Kerala, where 24 elephants were killed in the last three and half decades and 11 in the last 14 years.

The judges travelled to Walayar station from Ettimadai station and inspected the tracks in both directions. They inspected the locations where elephants were run over by trains, the honeybee alarm system, the site for hanging solar fencing proposed by the Railways and existing ramps across the tracks for elephant crossing, official sources said.

Special Secretary (Forests) Supriya Sahu, Coimbatore district Collector GS Sameeran, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden Syed Muzammil Abbas, Conservator of Forests S Ramasubramanian and Coimbatore District Forest Officer T K Ashok Kumar were among those who accompanied the judges during the inspection.

Earlier in March, a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices V Bharathidasan and N Sathishkumar said that they would conduct an inspection of the elephant corridor between Palakkad and Coimbatore railway stretch on April 9 and 10. The decision was announced in response to a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu forest department. The deaths of elephants by moving trains in the area have become a major bone of contention between the forest department and the Palakkad division of Southern Railways.

A few days earlier, the Southern Railways informed the court that it was not possible to reduce the speed of trains plying between Palakkad and Podanur to under 45 kmph to avoid hitting elephants. The Railways had also told the court that it was not possible to divert some of the trains in the Palakkad-Pollachi-Coimbatore route to prevent accidents involving elephants. 

With PTI and IANS inputs