With instances of wildlife mortality on railway tracks rising, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MOEFCC), in partnership with Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the ministry of railways, has identified 110 sensitive railway stretches in the country across elephant ranges and 17 more stretches in two tiger-range states for intervention to ensure greater animal safety.
Joint field surveys, conducted by Project Elephant (WII), state forest departments and Indian Railways teams, investigated the identified sites and as well their ecological conditions and proposed site-specific mitigation measures, said a statement from Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released on Thursday, March 12, morning, a copy of which is with The Plurals.
The statement is an output of a 2-day workshop being held on 10 and 11 March in Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The Project Elephant Division of the ministry, in collaboration with the WII, had organised the national workshop on ‘Policy Implementation for Minimizing Elephant Mortalities on Railway Tracks’ at Dehradun. Senior officials from Project Elephant, railways and forest departments were among the 40 participants.
“Based on a detailed assessment of 127 railway stretches covering 3,452.4km, 77 stretches spanning 1,965.2 km across 14 states were prioritised for mitigation, considering wildlife movement patterns and the risk of animal mortality,” the report added.
West Bengal is particularly vulnerable to the problem with 22 reported deaths of pachyderms due to railway collision during 2020 to 2025, out of which total 86 elephant deaths from railway accidents throughout the country (see box).
Safety steps planned
Increasing habitat fragmentation and expansion of railway infrastructure within elephant habitats have led to a rise in elephant mortality on the railway tracks. The deaths have occurred mostly in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the MOEFCC statement noted.
“The recommended mitigation package for these priority stretches includes 503 ramps and level crossings, 72 bridge extensions and modifications, 39 fencing or trenching structures, 4 exit ramps, 65 new underpasses and 22 overpasses, amounting to a total of 705 mitigation structures designed to facilitate safe wildlife passage and reduce collisions,” the statement added.
The meeting minutes point out that new railway lines and expansion projects, including track doubling and tripling, have been installed with wildlife-friendly infrastructure. “Notable examples include the Gevra Road-Pendra Road railway line passing through the Achanakmar-Amarkantak elephant corridor in Chhattisgarh; the Darekasa-Salekasa railway track tripling project and the Nagbhid-Itwari gauge conversion project in Maharashtra and the Wadsa-Gadchiroli railway line intersecting the Kanha-Navegaon-Tadoba-Indravati tiger corridor in Maharashtra,” the statement elaborated.
“A particularly significant intervention is planned along a 3.5km sensitive stretch of the Azara-Kamakhya railway line in Assam, intersecting the Rani-Garbhanga-Deepor Beel elephant corridor, where several elephant mortalities had occurred in the past,” it added. “This section will be elevated to enable safe elephant movement across the corridor, ” said an official.
North Bengal vulnerable
The problem is particularly pronounced along the Siliguri–Alipurduar railway stretch in north Bengal with about 89 elephants being killed in train collisions in four decades; 27 from 1974 to 2002, and, 62 from 2004 to 2015, once the gauge got converted from narrow to broad gauge; which increased train speeds in the stretch and, hence, accidents. According to the analysis of union ministry of environment forest and climate change (MoEFCC) data, spread over 1987 to 2007, about 26 per cent of the train accident-related elephant deaths in the country occurred in West Bengal.
“We have been hearing about various steps to stop the death of elephants on railway tracks since long; but no permanent solution could be found s9o far. I hope the latest decisions will be effective on ground,” said an elephant expert from north Bengal.
AI warning considered
The ministry said that several technology-based solutions are also being tested and implemented to prevent animal deaths on railway tracks. One such innovation is the Distributed Acoustic System (DAS)-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS), which is being deployed along sensitive railway stretches across elephant habitats. “Pilot installations have been successfully commissioned in four sections under the North East Frontier Railway, covering a total of 64.03 km of elephant corridors and 141 km of railway block sections in Assam,” said the ministry statement. The system is now being replicated in North Bengal and parts of Odisha.
“Another promising intervention is the AI-based early-warning system deployed at Madukkarai in Tamil Nadu, which uses a network of 12 tower-mounted cameras equipped with thermal and motion-sensing technology,” says the ministry. The system identifies elephant movement within 100 metres of railway tracks and automatically alerts forest and railway officials, allowing trains to slow down and elephants to cross safely.