Bhubaneswar, Aug 12 (UNI) Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav on Saturday said concerted efforts have been taken to address the critical issue of Railway-related elephant collisions.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion of World Elephant Day here, Yadav said with the largest population of wild Asian elephants, India is the mainstay for long-term conservation of the species.

He said concerted efforts have been taken by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change( MoEFCC), Ministry of Railways, the State Forest Departments, and the National Institutions like the Wildlife Institute of India to address the critical issue of Railway-related elephant collisions.

The Union Minister said as part of these efforts, about 110 critical stretches across the Railway network in the country that pass through elephant habitats have been identified.In these critical stretches, multipronged strategies are planned to minimize Railway-related elephant collisions,he added.

Yadav said in these locations measures such as building underpasses, clearing vegetation along the tracks to increase visibility for the loco pilots to avoid collisions, provisioning ramps, and others will also be taken up.

The Ministry of Railways, he said, is contemplating to replicate the technology based intrusion detection system along the tracks in Odisha and other States in the country.

The Minister highlighted the novel initiative taken by the Ministry to map genotypes of all captive elephants in the country to prevent illegal trafficking of elephants.

He said for the first time, the Ministry has embarked on carrying out management effectiveness and evaluation of the Elephant Reserves across the country.

Yadav said Four elephant reserves across the four elephant bearing regions of the country have been identified for piloting the process of management effectiveness evaluation for the Elephant Reserves.

This will be a major step forward in standardizing and propagating best practices among the Elephant Reserves, he said.

The Minister claimed that the Elephant Reserve network in the country increased from 76,508 kms to 80,777 kms comprising of 33 Elephant Reserves during the last two years.

Yadav said active participation with local communities is the key in steering elephant conservation to new heights adding that the Ministry is committed to reconciling human welfare and elephant conservation.

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