Minimizing elephant deaths:

Railway authorities urged to cooperate

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Elephant conservators of the Wildlife Conservation Department have requested the Sri Lanka Railway to upgrade brake kits , headlights, horns and wipers of the trains that pass through prime forest areas where elephant herds roam, to minimize increasing elephant deaths on railway tracks.

Wildlife officials on elephant conservation urged the railway authorities to ensure that trains run through forests are in better condition, during a meeting held to discuss how they could combine their efforts to prevent elephant deaths resulting from trains.

Meanwhile, the Wildlife Department is to remove overgrown shrubbery at several railway bends on the railway track between Maha Oya and Trincomalee.

The majority of train-hit elephant deaths have occurred in these areas over the past five years, railway sources told the Daily News.