A video of an elephant family attempting to pass barriers alongside a railway track in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu has gone viral, reigniting debate over the need for wildlife corridors. As soon as the video became viral, the Railway Ministry acted quickly to clear a path for the animals to travel.
While mitigation barriers surrounding highways and railway tracks are intended to reduce the likelihood of accidents and animal-human conflicts, elephants in the video were observed straining to rejoin the neighbouring forest. The calves and adults were seen strolling on the train line before they could safely jump over and pass the wall, according to a video uploaded on Twitter by Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Supriya Sahu.
Fortunately, there were no approaching trains as the herd crossed, but the IAS officer couldn’t stop mentioning the possible hazards of the barrier to animal mobility. Sahu described the footage as distressing, adding: ‘Need to have a mandatory SOP for all infra agencies towards sensitive wildlife-friendly design & execution’.
Distressing to see that this herd of elephants had to negotiate their way through danger filled railway track. Need to have a mandatory SOP for all infra agencies towads sensitive wildlife friendly design & execution #savewildlife @RailMinIndia #elephants #Nilgiris pic.twitter.com/tSiKk3aTXS
— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) February 2, 2022
Many individuals joined Sahu in expressing their outrage and advocating for better animal mobility measures, such as the construction of wildlife corridors, also known as habitat corridors.
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Later, Sahu provided an update to highlight how quickly wildlife agencies and railroads collaborated to take action. The barriers along the rails were observed being dismantled in a second video she shared. ‘When we work together we come out with solutions’, she wrote. On social media, many praised the IAS officer’s efforts and applauded the Railways Ministry for acting quickly.
This is just brilliant and fast
— Kausshal | Teapreneur (@Tea_preneur) February 3, 2022
Happy to see that u fast tracked the solution. ??
— Niraj Agrawal???? (@nirajs_agrawal) February 3, 2022
well done… the elephants will be happy and at peace and so will human beings…
— Raja Venkatraman. (@raja_venkatram) February 3, 2022
Great, but this shows how unplanned move was to build the wall. Waste of time and money.
— RAJESH ASHAR (@rajeshashar) February 3, 2022
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