Saving elephants from trains
Elephants are considered a national treasure in Sri Lanka partly due to their significance in Buddhist culture. Sri Lanka’s wildlife and railway authorities announced on Friday a series of low-tech measures, including adjusting timetables to reduce night-time train collisions, following the worst wildlife accident that killed seven elephants. The measures came after an express train near a wildlife reserve in Habarana hit them on the tracks. Authorities said they had identified vulnerable stretches of railway tracks in elephant-inhabited forest areas in the island’s northern and eastern regions, and mitigation measures were already underway. “We have started clearing shrubs on either side of the tracks to allow drivers to see more clearly if herds are near.” He said fewer trains were being operated at night in areas prone to accidents involving wildlife. Authorities were also deploying power-set trains, which have better braking power, to minimize collisions.
Wildlife authorities had also begun filling gaps between the ties under the rails to prevent elephants from getting stuck if they attempted to escape approaching trains. “We are also using solar-powered lights to illuminate the tracks and are in the process of installing motion sensors that will alert drivers to wild animals on the tracks.” 138 elephants had been killed by trains in the past 17 years since authorities began collecting data. Two weeks ago, the government announced that 1,195 people and 3,484 animals had been killed in a decade due to the worsening human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile in India
This picture shows workers push a finished model of a robotic elephant outside a workshop in Thrissur, in India’s Kerala state. It flaps its ears and squirts water from a waving trunk, but this elephant is a life-size mechanical replica rolled out to replace the endangered animals in India’s Hindu temples. The robot made of fiberglass and rubber, on a wheeled metal frame is strong enough to hold a rider. The robot is one of dozens that animal rights campaigners are trumpeting as an alternative to keeping elephants in captivity in India. Elephants are used during many Hindu temple ceremonies, paraded through packed crowds with flashing lights, thumping drums and ear-splitting music. Deadly attacks by panicked pachyderms are common. “It is a wild animal, it likes to live in jungles.” “We are capturing it and torturing it. It’s totally unethical.”
The team has made nearly 50 such elephants — with a production line at the workshop building several more. For those keen on an elephant at their wedding, models can be rented without the cumbersome permits required for a costly real one, he pointed out. Accidents involving spooked elephants trampling crowds are common and some temples switching to robots cite the safety of their worshippers. But “animals are being commercially exploited without any care or concern for their well-being”, it said. As elephant habitats shrink, conflict between humans and wild elephants has grown — 629 people were killed by elephants across India in 2023-2024, according to parliamentary figures. Over the same period, 121 elephants were killed — the vast majority by powerful electric fences, as well as by poaching, poisoning, and being hit by trains. “When it is a live elephant, there’s a fear amongst us. What if it runs amok?” “Since it’s a robotic elephant, we feel much safer.”
Elephantine Humor
Cocaine is an Irish illegal brew that etches holes in steel plate. Old Thomas Flanery after drinking a pint of it saw so many animals in his room that he put a sign on his house naming it the “Zoo.” The local constable Sgt. one day was called to reason with him and was no sooner in and then he was offered a glass of the Mountain Dew, as it is called. When he staggered out 30 minutes later, he raised a hand for silence. “It’s all right, then the worst is over, he sold me half the elephants.”
Did you hear the one about the elephant with diarrhea?
No? Funny, it’s all over town.
How would an elephant smell without a trunk?
He would still smell terrible.
What’s the difference between an Indian and an African elephant?
One is an elephant.
March 27th Birthdays
1970 – Mariah Carey, 1989 – Brenda Song, 1960 – Pauley Perrette, 1975 – Fergie
1987 – Buster Posey, 1981 – Nathan Fillion, 1988 – Ram Charan, 1964- Quentain Tarantino