Rail fence to prevent elephant deaths in addition to underpasses near Coimbatore

After constructing south India’s first underpass for wild elephants on the Ettimadai – Walayar section of the rail line, the Southern Railway is planning to construct a rail fence to prevent wild elephants from getting knocked down by moving trains.

Sources with the Southern Railway said that the plan is to construct a 3.6 km rail fence between Madukkarai and Ettimadai railway stations. They added that the proposal was in its initial stages.

Officials from the Palakkad Division of the Southern Railway and officers from the Coimbatore Forest Division inspected the railway line between Madukkarai and Ettimadai railway stations some weeks ago.

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Forest Department officials said that a rail fence of about 400 metres along the track, which was erected a few decades ago near a private university at Ettimadai, was still strong and elephants have not been crossing the track there. During the joint inspection, officials checked the existing rail fence and felt that it could be extended upto a warehouse near Madukkarai station, by erecting a new fence of about 3.6 km.

“The joint inspection was primarily conducted for the second underpass for wild elephants to be constructed on the ‘B’ line [of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ twin single line] between Ettimadai and Walayar. Railway officials felt that a combination of underpass and rail fence will be effective to prevent elephants from getting hit by trains. They had assured us of floating a tender for the rail fence project”, said N. Jayaraj, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore Forest Division.

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The first underpass was constructed at the location ‘km 505A/400-500’ of ‘B’ line which passes through Madukkarai forest range of the Coimbatore Forest Division. Within a few months of its commissioning, elephants started using the underpass to cross the track safely. The second one will come up at the location ‘km 506/900 – 506A/00’, also on the ‘B’ line.

According to Mr. Jayaraj, Tamil Nadu Forest Department’s project to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks using artificial intelligence (AI) on the Ettimadai – Walayar section was nearing completion.