Three Odisha Students, To Save Elephants From Being Hit By Trains Develop Unique Gadget

Bhubaneswar (Reporters Today Bureau): Three students Payal Bhadra, Abhijit Balabantray, and Sujit Sahoo of Centurion University, Guided by Professor Sujata Chakraborty in Bhubaneswar have developed a unique device that will save elephants from serious accidents while crossing railway tracks in forest areas.

The gadget helps the loco pilot to avoid train accident by taking necessary steps after getting a signal from a distance of 300 meters on the movement of elephants on railway tracks

According to the sources, the process of developing the gadget was started in December 2019. It was showcased at an event organized by IIT Bombay on March 16, 2020.  The process to get a patent from the country’s premier institution is in the final stage.

“The elephants never change their path through which they move in search of food. The construction of a railway track cannot hinder the pachyderms and they continue moving on the same path. Although there is an instruction from the Railway Ministry to slow the train speed on railway tracks built-in forest areas, the loco pilots at a time fail to get information about the movement of elephants on the route for which many elephants have been mowed down on tracks in the past,” said Abhijit Balabantray.

Giving an instance, he said that at least six elephants were killed by a speeding train in November 2013 while crossing the railway tracks inside Chapramari wildlife sanctuary, around 18km from Banarhat area in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal.