Indian Railways deploys ‘Plan Bee’ to ward off elephants from tracks, and ‘it’s a success’

The Indian Railways said that its "Plan Bee", launched in November last year to stop elephants from being hit by speeding trains in the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), has been a great success.

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A herd in the Telalia wetlands of Meghalaya in 2015. As railway lines cut through elephant corridors, the numbers of elephants being killed have been rising steadily. (Photo: AP)

The Indian Railways has come up with an initiative called “Plan Bee” to prevent speeding trains from hitting elephants crossing tracks. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said that the plan involves setting up of devices near tracks, which emit the ‘buzzing’ sound of swarming bees, considered as a natural nemesis of elephants.

On Friday, the Indian Railways declared that its “Plan Bee”, launched in November last year to stop elephants from being hit by speeding trains in the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), has been a great success as the number of casualties has gone down drastically. “The idea was then discussed with the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in Assam’s Tezpur, who suggested that certain deterrents like beehive or amplified honey bee sound can be explored,” an official of the Indian Railways was quoted as saying by IANS.

Railways has come up with ‘Plan Bee’, an innovative method to prevent elephants from approaching the railway lines. It involves setting up of devices near tracks, which emit the ‘buzzing’ sound of bees, saving elephants from train accidents. https://t.co/nfWbenKSl7 pic.twitter.com/hwaYUO306W

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) September 7, 2018

“The device amplifies the buzz of swarming honeybees, which is considered as a natural nemesis of elephants and is audible to elephants 600 meters away and thus helps them in keeping away from the tracks,” the official said. However, the first testing of the device failed as it was done with a pet elephant. The second testing of the device in the Phulbari Tea Estate near Rangapara in Assam was successful. The third testing of the device in front of the forest officials was also successful.

Four elephants, including a calf, were cut down by a train in Odisha in April of this year. The new plan is likely to reduce the number of such deaths of elephants.

The Environment Ministry’s Elephant Task Force report estimated more than 100 elephants had died on the tracks during 2001-10. Many, like the recent deaths, are mass casualties — six elephants were killed in Ganjam, Odisha, in December 2012, and seven in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, in September 2010.

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