Bee Buzz Device To Curb Elephant Deaths In Train Mishaps In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to introduce the novel bee buzz device to bring down elephant deaths in the train mishaps. The device has proved immensely successful in Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting between the Railway officials and the Energy department at the State Secretariat here on Friday.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) Sudarsan Panda said to prevent the elephants from approaching the railway track, an electronic device would be installed near the railway track which will emit the buzzing sound of the bees. As the elephants are ‘allergic’ to the buzzing sound which they can hear about 600 metres from the railway track, they will try to keep away from the track.

Stating that the novel device will be implemented at Sadashivpur Railway Station in Dhenkanal district as a pilot project, he said the Forest department has asked the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) of Jharsuguda, Keonjhar and other elephant corridors in Dhenkanal district to identify the location for installation of the device.

Notably, the “Plan Bee” launched by the Indian Railways in the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) zone in November last year has been a great success.

Five elephants, including a calf, were mowed down by a speeding Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express near Rambha railway station in Ganjam district on July 4, 2015.

In another incident, a female elephant was killed after being hit by a goods train near Ramachandrapur village in Keonjhar district on November 21 this year.

To save the elephants from train mishaps in Odisha, the State Forest and Environment department had signed a MoU with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) on May 10, 2013. The MoU had underlined identification of critical accident-prone areas along the railway tracks, understanding the cause for these accidents and steps to be taken for site-specific mitigation.