“CO-ORDINATION MEETING BETWEEN RAILWAY AND FOREST OFFICIALS TO FACILITATE SMOOTH PASSAGE OF ELEPHANTS ACROSS RAILWAY TRACKS”
A co-ordination meeting was held between Khurda Road Railway authorities and Forest officials, at the conference hall of Divisional Railway manager’s office, Khurda Road. The aim is to have a close co-ordination between Railway authorities and forest officials, for smooth passage of elephants, prevent accidents and reduce detention of trains due to excessive elephant caution order.
The meeting was chaired by Shri H.S.Bajwa, Divisional Railway Manager, Khurda Road. From Khurda Road division, Shri P.K.Behera, Additional divisional railway manager (Operation) was present along with branch officers of Operating, Commercial, Engineering, Signal & Telecom, Electrical (Operation) and Security departments. From Forest department, Shri Sudhanshu Sekhar Khora,IFS, Regional Chief Conservator of Forests, Field director/Satkosia Tiger Reserve, Angul, was present along with Divisional Forest officers of Cuttack, Athagarh, Dhenkanal, Khordha and other forest officials from Angul.
Shri H.S.Bajwa, the Divisional railway manager, Khurda Road, emphsised on close co-ordination with forest officials, so that elephants movement can be monitored on real time basis. In this regard, a healthy discussion was held and various action points have been formulated to prevent elephant deaths on tracks.
The Divisional forest officials were advised to depute their staff at important Railway stations, for timely communication about elephant movement at the sections. Underpass and overpasses will be built, at the locations selected by Ministry of Environment and Forest i.e Byree – Kapilas Road, Dhenkanal-Hindol-Sadashivpur etc over Khurda Road division.
Vulnerable locations will be identified and the vegetation near the Railway tracks are to be cleaned for clear visibility. Availability of signage boards as a pre-warn to the Loco pilots will to be ensured. A special channel will be created through walkie-talkies, for smooth communication between station masters and forest departments, so that the station master can give “Look out advice” to the train crew, timely.
Regular sentising programmes will be conducted for Loco pilots and guards on wild life conservation and protection. Instructions will be given to IRCTC/Pantry car staff to not to throw edible waste on Railway tracks, which may attract wild animals.
The Vulnerable sections of elephant movement over Khurda Road division are Byree-Kapilas road, Kaipadar-Tapang, Gurudujhatia-Rajathagarh-Machhapur, Radhakisorepur-Ghantical, Parjanga-Kamalanga etc. The control room of Khurda Road division is working round the clock to pass the information of elephant movements to concerned section and there of issuing caution orders to the station masters and loco pilots to run the trains with permissible speed to avoid elephant deaths due to train accidents.
Sometimes due to the caution orders on elephant corridors, the punctuality of the trains are being hampered. So, shri H.S.Bajwa, DRM/Khurda Road, requested the Rail users to co-operate Railways to save the wild life from train accidents.
