In a letter sent to all states last week, which has been reviewed by Mint, director general of forests S.S. Negi said, “death of elephants due to train accidents has assumed alarming proportion in recent past”.

Negi, who is also special secretary, ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), cited news reports that at least 18 elephants had been killed in recent months across the country.

They include two elephant casualties in Tamil Nadu (June) three in Kerala (July and November), three in west Bengal (August), one in Uttarakhand (October) and seven in Assam (December).

“It is requested that frontline staff are put on high alert and suitable preventive actions are taken to minimize deaths/injury to elephants and other wild animals due to train accidents, in consultation with State railway authorities,” Negi wrote in his letter.

He also directed that, “every elephant casualty should be enquired into and the enquiry report along with post-mortem report of elephants should be submitted to the ministry at the earliest”.

This is not the first time MoEFCC has issued directions or expressed concern over elephants being killed after being knocked down by trains passing through forest areas.

In August, minister of state for environment, forest and climate change Anil Madhav Dave had sought a detailed report on train accidents in West Bengal in which three elephants were killed. Dave also directed the state forest department officials to discuss the issue with Railways authorities and put in place measures for the protection of elephants.

A case on the issue is also going on at the Supreme Court where MoEFCC had submitted an affidavit in 2014, proposing a special thrust to the use of technology, especially 24X7electronic surveillance and wireless sensors, to curb elephant fatalities from collisions with trains.

MoEFCC, meanwhile, has also initiated steps to prepare a regional landscape plan for the conservation of elephants in the East Central Elephant Landscape, comprising the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and other elephant areas, where a lot of such incidents take place.

The environment ministry has also suggested to the states various precautionary measures to prevent such accidents.

For instance, in an advisory to railway and state governments to prevent collision of trains with wild elephants, the ministry suggesting measures like clearing vegetation on the sides of railway tracks, underpasses/overpasses/girder bridges across vulnerable stretches of railway tracks to allow safe passage of elephants, signage boards at selected points to alert train drivers, sensitization programmes for train drivers/guards/station masters, keeping railway tracks free from food wastes as that attracts elephants and other animals.

The ministry of railways has also been requested to regulate the speed of trains in identified vulnerable sections between sunset and sunrise.

The elephant is a protected animal under India’s wildlife laws. India started Project Elephant in 1992 to protect Asian elephants, their habitat and corridors and address man-elephant conflict. In 2010, the central government declared the elephant an animal of national heritage to intensify measures for its protection.