'Plan Bee' gets Indian elephants to buzz off railways

JULY 10, 2019

Indian Railways have come up with a novel way of getting elephants to buzz off from train tracks: speakers that play the sound of bees to scare the jumbos away.

Almost 70 elephants were killed by trains between 2013 and June this year, mostly in the north-eastern state of Assam and northern West Bengal.

But nearly 50 buzzing amplifiers have been deployed as part of "Plan Bee" at a dozen "elephant corridors" in the vast forests of Assam state, home to nearly 6,000 elephants, 20 percent of the country's total.

"We were looking for means to stop the elephants from coming on to the tracks and our officers came up with this device," Pranav Jyoti Sharma, an Indian Railways spokesperson, told AFP.

The buzzing is played as trains approach vulnerable points and can be heard up to half a mile (600 metres) away, the spokesman said.

The devices were tested for efficiency in 2017 on domesticated elephants, and then wild ones, before they were deployed for real last year.

The novel approach has won the team accolades from animal conservationists and on Tuesday an award for "best innovative idea" from Indian Railways for regional operator Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

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Right of passage for Indian elephants

Indian elephants are one step closer to being able to travel freely from the Emangre Reserve Forest to the Rewak Reserve Forest in Meghalaya state. These forests in the south Garo Hills are home to more than 1,000 elephants, and protecting them and allowing them to move freely across the region has become increasingly important in recent years. The principle occupation of the area is agriculture and elephants are troublesome visitors to the Garo villages as they raid crops and cause damage to fencing and other infrastructure. The villagers have to mount 24-hour guards and can retaliate with firecrackers to scare the elephants.

Over past few years Meghalaya has been creating what are called ‘elephant corridors’, which help to keep the animals away from the villages, and allow them to live natural lives, interacting with other elephants in other forests and reserves.

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India temple elephants sent on rejuvenating holiday

..A southern Indian state on Wednesday ordered a vacation for elephants employed by temples as part of an official programme to "rejuvenate" the weary creatures, officials said.


State foresters herded 45 domestic pachyderms from Hindu shrines and hermitages in Tamil Nadu to the coastal state's Mudumalai forests for a 48-day break to help them regain lost vigour, they said.

"The elephants were brought in two batches in trucks from various temples and mutts (hermitages) across the state," said senior forest department official Ameer Haja.

They will eat a special diet of sugarcane, coconuts and banana laced with herbal medication and vitamins during their stay at the rejuvenation camp, Haja added.

Elephants form a traditional part of Hindu rituals in temples, where they bless pilgrims and devotees with their raised trunks. They are also trained to perform other physical duties at the shrines.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/india-temple-elephants-sent-rejuvenating-holiday-170550869.html