Kochi: In the wake of recurring incidents of wild elephants being killed due to train hits in Walayar, ANEC Trust, an NGO, has served a statutory legal notice on Union environment ministry, Project Elephant authorities, senior officers of state forest department and Southern Railway , demanding measures to prevent elephant deaths on Walayar-Kanjikode rail corridor.
The legal notice follows the death of an elephant and her calf after being struck by Mangalore Express near Walayar on Aug 12, on World Elephant Day. It said the incident can’t be treated as an isolated railway accident, as about 35 wild elephants have reportedly been killed on this stretch in the past two decades. It has demanded an immediate AI-based elephant detection and early-warning system, protection of elephant corridors, transparent utilisation of wildlife funds, joint forest-railway action and accountability. The NGO considered the Walayar–Kanjikode stretch a known, foreseeable and recurring wildlife-mortality hotspot, requiring permanent preventive intervention. It asked if all available preventive measures were operational.
The NGO has demanded a complete examination of the circumstances surrounding the latest deaths, including the movement of the elephants before the collision, railway operating conditions, availability and functioning of warning mechanisms, communication between the forest department and railway authorities, surveillance and response time.
The trust demanded an investigation that not merely establishes how the elephants died, but also examines why a known and foreseeable risk wasn’t effectively prevented.