The Southern Railway demolished a retaining wall at the Hillgrove station in Nilgiris district on Thursday, which was hindering elephant movement.
Videos of a herd of elephants being unable to cross the station and into a surrounding reserve forest due to the construction of a newly-built wall at Hillgrove, were shared widely on social media and mobile messaging applications. Additional chief secretary to the State government, Supriya Sahu, had tweeted the video of the elephants and had appealed to the Ministry of Railways to take steps to restore the elephant pathways.
Following this, a team of Forest Department personnel as well as officials from the Salem division of the Southern Railway inspected the area on Thursday evening. The Railway approved of the demolition of the retaining wall. The demolition of the wall began on Thursday evening, and was completed by Friday, officials said.
Ms. Sahu, responding on Twitter, stated, “When we work together we could with solutions [sic]. The wall is being demolished. Great team work…” Ms. Sahu had applauded the efforts of the Forest Department and also thanked the Ministry of Railways for their quick decision to approve of the demolition.
Sources in the Forest Department said that they would continue to chart out pathways used by the elephants to climb the Coonoor ghat from Kallar. “We will find if there is any infrastructure that has been built by either the government departments or private parties that is hindering elephant movement and ensure that the blockage is either removed or modified to not have an impact on elephant movement,” said an official.
Recently, the national highways wing of the State Highways Department has also been accused of blocking traditional pathways used by elephants along the stretch between Kallar and Coonoor with road expansion work and retaining walls blocking routes used by pachyderms.
