Dhenkanal: To ensure safe movement of wild elephants across railway tracks and ward off any fatal mishap threatening them, an animal overpass will come up in the Kapilash wildlife sanctuary of Dhenkanal district.
This underpass will be first of its kind in the state. This was informed by a forest official here, Saturday.
“An elephant overpass will come up at Compartment No-1 in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary close to railway tracks of Joranda station. Plans are now afoot for an expansion of the existing railway infrastructure. Hence, it has also been decided to construct the animal overpass. The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) had given its nod to a 100-metre-long animal over pass in December, 2021,” Dhenkanal divisional forest officer (DFO) Prakash Chand Gogineni stated.
Structural design of the overpass project and its construction site will be finalised soon by a joint team of officials from the Forest and Railway departments. It was also decided that the construction work will be executed by the Railway department, the DFO informed. “Its design is likely to be finalised within next three to four months and it will take two years for project completion,” the DFO added.
The pilot overpass project will cover a large patch of land stretching from Rajathagarh railway station in Cuttack up to the Joranda Road railway station of Gobindapur in Dhenkanal, Gogineni clarified.
According to another official, a survey work for the country’s first ever pilot project to safeguard wildlife has already been done. Another such pilot project is also to come up in a reserve forest of Bihar.
As per expansion plans, the proposed overpass project in the Kapilash sanctuary will be of four lanes with two up and two down tracks.
Reacting to the decision, environmentalist Sishir Satpathy said, “It is certainly a welcome step and the authorities concerned should identify more sensitive elephant corridors in Dhenkanal and the other districts where overpasses can be constructed to protect the wildlife.”
It is pertinent to mention, the sanctuary spreads from Dhenkanal up to Khuntuni under Athagarh forest division of Cuttack. BhubaneswarDhenkanal-Talcher-Angul-Sambalpur railway line passes through the reserve forest. However, herds of the pachyderms entering into the Kapilash sanctuary from Chandaka through Athagarh forest division and the vice versa often face problems leading to their deaths at times.
Jumbo herds have to often cross the railway tracks in the corridor areas of Athagarh forest division, Ranabania and the Kapilash wildlife sanctuary.
Environmentalists opined that the jumbo overpass would play a crucial role in protecting the animals from accidents on the railway tracks.
In order to curb the elephant casualties due to train accidents, the state government has plans to erect iron barriers near railway tracks at sensitive spots for safety of the animals.