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The successful innovation by N.F. Railway to keep wild elephants away from crossing the railway track by playing the amplified sound of honey bees has won the 1st prize for best innovation in Indian Railways where all zones participated. The 1st prize comprise of a citation along with a cash award of Rs. 3 lakhs.
It may be mentioned here that NFR tracks passes through vast areas of forest land which are home to various wild animals including elephants. Herds of elephants often try...
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to cross railway track in search of food, which sometimes lead to fatal incidents leading to death of elephant as well as train derailment. From the year 2013 upto June 2019; a total of 67 elephants were knocked down in train – elephant dashing. As per available information Elephant population in Assam is about 5620. There are few thousands in Dooars area of North Bengal also. So, as a precautionary measure NFR imposed speed restrictions in various notified elephant corridors within its jurisdiction in consultation with the Forest departments of various states.
To further reduce the problem of Elephant dashing with train, a trial using certain frequency of sound to distract the elephants and to move them away from the railway track was thought about. Accordingly, Rangiya Division took the lead and an equipment was designed to generate amplified sound of Honey Bee audible from a distance of about 700-800 mts. The then Divisional Railway Manager, Shri Ravilesh Kumar took the lead to form a team comprising Shri Santosh Kr. Sharma, Addl. Divisional Railway Manager, Sr. Divisional Engineer/III Shri Sitesh Das, Sr. Divisional Safety Officer Shri Suresh Prasad, Shri Avdesh Verma, Divisional Engineer/Rangiya, Shri R.K. Dhaka, Divisional Engineer/Rangiya and Shri Pinku, Asst. Divisional Engineer/Rangiya who carried out the first testing in Rangapara and the second testing in Phulbari Tea Estate under Rangiya Division, where it was found that the elephant starting moving away once the Honey Bee sound was generated. Following the successful trial, first instrument was installed at level crossing gate NN-274 between Azara and Kamakhya station under Rangiya Division. Gradually the instrument has been installed in many level crossing gates in the zone located in the vicinity of forest areas. Presently 46 such equipment have been installed all over NFR.
The above initiative, trial of which started from the end of year 2017 alongwith implementation of various other measures like fixing of Signage Boards at all identified elephant corridors to pre-warn driver, clearance of vegetation on both sides of railway track to improve visibility of drivers etc was successful in saving lives of many elephants. As per available record, 1014 elephants were saved upto June 2019 from the year 2014. Of these 434 were saved in the year 2018 alone.

ENGINE OF DOWN KANCHANKANYA EXPRESS CAUGHT FIRE
Presence of mind and quick action averted a major catastrophe with a fire breaking out in the engine of the 13150 down Kanchankanya Express.
The fire broke out near Bagrakot station in the Malbazar block of Jalpaiguri district on Thursday evening. However, there were no reports of any casualty or injuries.
The train departed from Alipurduar...
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Junction for Sealdah at 4 pm.
At around 7 pm, when the train was nearing the Bagrakot station in the Jalpaiguri district, the engine driver noticed fire on the cables. The engine was quickly detached from the bogies. The engine was then driven away to a distance.
Two fire engines from the Malbazar fire station arrived and doused the flame.
A major catastrophe could have occurred if the fire would have spread in the moving train.

At around 10 pm, another engine was used to drive the train to the New Jalpaiguri station.
(Pic source -click here )