COLOMBO:
Sri Lanka’s wildlife and railway authorities introduced on Friday a collection of low-tech measures, together with adjusting timetables to cut back night-time practice collisions, following the worst wildlife accident that killed seven elephants.
The measures got here after seven elephants have been run over on February 20 by an specific practice close to a wildlife reserve in Habarana, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) east of the capital Colombo, making it the worst accident of its sort.
Authorities stated that they had recognized susceptible stretches of railway tracks in elephant-inhabited forest areas within the island’s northern and japanese areas, and mitigation measures have been already underway.
“We’ve began clearing shrubs on both aspect of the tracks to permit drivers to see extra clearly if herds are close to,” railway spokesman V. S. Polwattage advised reporters in Colombo.
He stated fewer trains have been being operated at evening in areas vulnerable to accidents involving wildlife.
Authorities have been additionally deploying power-set trains, which have higher braking energy, to minimise collisions.
No passengers have been injured within the February 20 incident, however companies have been disrupted for nearly a day.
Wildlife Conservation Director Manjula Amararathna stated authorities had additionally begun filling gaps between sleepers — the logs that sit in parallel below the rail — to stop elephants from getting caught in the event that they tried to flee approaching trains.
“We’re additionally utilizing solar-powered lights to light up the tracks and are within the course of of putting in movement sensors that may alert drivers to wild animals on the tracks,” Amararathna stated.
He stated 138 elephants had been killed by trains up to now 17 years since authorities started accumulating knowledge.
Two weeks in the past, the federal government introduced that 1,195 individuals and three,484 animals had been killed in a decade because of the worsening human-elephant battle on the island.