The Forest Department has increased the number of staff for foot patrols on the railway lines between Walayar and Ettimadai stations for the safety of elephants.
District Forest Officer T.K. Ashok Kumar told The Hindu that 12 staff are conducting foot patrols on the vulnerable stretch at night. During day, the patrolling was being done by seven persons.
The number of staff for the patrol was increased on directions from Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden Shekhar Kumar Niraj.
Mr. Niraj had inspected the two railway lines -- line A, where three elephants were hit by a Chennai bound train on November 26 night, and line B on which many elephants had been killed due to train hits in the past.
A chip that was retrieved from the speedometer of the train that knocked down the three elephants on November 26 was yet to be analysed to check the speed of the train at the time of the incident. The department had produced the chip before a judicial magistrate court.
Mr. Kumar said that the department was waiting for the court's direction for the examination of the chip. The examination is expected to be done in a Railways facility in Erode, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Central Monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), which deals with Project Elephant, had given its suggestions to the Forest Departments in Tamil Nadu and Kerala to avert such incidents, sources said.
A team of experts from the Project Elephant division had inspected the railway lines in September this year, after being tasked by the National Green Tribunal to look into the elephant fatalities.
Sources said the experts suggested the construction of underpasses to enable elephants to cross below railway lines, laying of a road for easy access to railway track for the staff and early warning systems for loco pilots, among others.
