Increased runovers in the Walayar ghat section:


There are 2 broad gauge railyway lines connecting the cities of Palakkad in Kerala and Coimbatore in Tamilnadu. The total gang length between the two cities is 50Kms and most of this route is traversing through the Walayar Ghats of the Western Ghats mountain ranges. The Walayar ghats is contiguous to Nilgiri Biosphere reserve and the Kerala forests.

The two Railway lines are line-A and Line-B. Line B traverses through the middle of the forest whereas line-A passes in the fringes. Both are energized tracks. The ghat section actually commences from a station called Kanjikode and ends a few miles before the Palakkad junction. The traffic is very heavy with numerous trains – both goods and passenger, plying ceaselessly day till night. With every railway budget, a new train is announced to Kerala state which invariably passes through this route.

The vital elephant corridors in Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Palakkad regions of the Western Ghats are fast shrinking and hence elephants often migrates through obscure Walayar ghats where, there seems to perennial availability of forage and water. The elephants crossing railway tracks is a common phenomenon here. The crossing is perilous for elephants and 7 runovers were officially reported during the last 16 months. Environmental groups and wildlife enthusiasts based in Coimbatore region asserts more unreported runovers. They claim that the runover of smaller mammals lilke Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) goes unnoticed.

The grave conservation threat is of no importance to the railways. Their apathy and lack of cooperation to reduce such runovers is worth condemnation.

• The energized lines with 25KV ohd wire are death-defying for elephants if they accidently establish a direct contact.
• The prescribed speed restriction (65km/hr for passenger trains and 25km/hr for goods trains) is very high and needs to be immediately revisited to less than 25km/hr (or even less) for both Passenger and goods trains.
• Even the prescribed speed limits are often breached. Engine drivers seldom adhere to the speed limits.
• There is absolutely no awareness among the train crew about the vital wildlife conservation issue for which they are directly related to.

The majority of trains these days are fitted with AC locomotives which possess very good braking capacity. If a revised speed restriction is imposed and if followed religiously the number of runovers will largely reduce.

However for a permanent remedy, longterm landscape level conservation measures should be opted in this ecologically important and fragile elephant country.


Post script: I have been only once to this area that too not on a complete wildlife expedition. A careful study and documentation of facts (with sufficient illustrations) is the need of the hour if we can influence a long term conservation measure. [B]Primarily the topography needs to be assessed.