The mass deaths of seven elephants mowed down by a single train last Wednesday night shocked the nation at this senseless loss of elephant lives.

The tragedy occurred when the Batticaloa-bound train from Colombo, ‘Meenagaya,’ hit the elephant herd at the 141st milepost at Gal Oya on Wednesday near midnight. Five of the herd, emerging from the Kaudulla Forest Reserve, were instantly killed in the horrific train crash. A mother and her calf were spared instantaneous death, only to succumb, a few hours later, to their severe injuries; the mother, by the railroad track, her baby daughter, at Giritale’s Wildlife Unit.

They were all female elephants, including the three calves. In the aftermath of the accident that left the train derailed, a harrowing video report, shot in the morning hours, shows the critically wounded mother elephant keeping vigil over her fatally injured calf. But soon her life expires, and the little calf is rendered orphaned and left to die alone at the nearby wildlife welfare centre.

THE LAST VIGIL: Fatally wounded mother elephant keeps anguished watch unto her very end over her fatally injured and wailing calf next to the midnight killer train

A villager claims in the video report: “The station isn’t even a kilometre from the scene of the train collision. But the train was going so fast it hit four elephants within such a short distance. We battle with elephants 365 days a year. But we are against the lives of these innocent elephants ending in such a manner. This is a national crime.”

As villagers helplessly watched the calf, bereft of its mother, wailing in the throes of death without any medical succour, it broke the heart of a mother, carrying her own small child, who said, “The train was very fast, and it hit the elephants. We know that elephants cause much hardship to farmers, but it is sad to see them die.”

Another village said, “Earlier, three elephants were killed. Elephants cross from here to go to the tank for water. Elephants cross from here to go to the tank for water. The 12 o’clock train is an express train and has no speed limits. If there are speed controls, accidents can be minimised.”

The Daily Mirror reported an unnamed railway official as claiming the train’s engine driver had violated operational guidelines. He had driven the train too fast at night. It made it impossible to stop in time. The official also noted that the driver failed to adhere to warning signs along the railway track.

At a press briefing held last Friday, Railway Trade Union Alliance Convenor S.P. Vithanage said train collisions with elephants frequently occur between Polonnaruwa and Hingurakgoda. He criticised the lack of effective measures and called for immediate intervention to prevent further incitement.

Environment Minister Dammika Patabendi told Parliament this week that 43 elephants died this year in January alone due to the perennial human-elephant conflict that has defied solution ever since it began. With last Wednesday’s seven, it hits the 50 mark and sets this Government well on track to beat all previous records for the highest number of elephants killed in a year.

But that doesn’t mean the Government has been idle, fiddling their thumbs, searching for an answer that comes to none. On the contrary, the elusive quest to find an answer to prevent the senseless elephant deaths on this treacherous 10-mile track of rail has been turned into an all-round party effort.

Even the Leader of the House, Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation, National List senior JVP MP, Bimal Ratnayake, had, in the midst of his onerous duties, found the time to burn the midnight oil and chipped in with his own indigenous, cost-free, home-grown solution to end this perennial problem that had defied even wildlife experts for donkey’s years.

When it was ultimately announced in the House, it was none of the sort Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa would have expected it to be when he had told the media last Friday, “We are committed to implementing a scientific and sustainable solution that ensures railway operations continue while protecting elephants.”

It was none of the sort either to what wildlife experts had expected the Government to come up with to beat all solutions by a furlong to spare.

Wildlife experts had identified several elephant corridors along the Batticaloa railway line. They had proposed certain technological solutions to avert accidents. These included:

n Installing low-frequency horns to warn elephants of oncoming trains

n Using infrared detectors to identify elephant movements

n Imposing strict speed limits in high-risk areas

n Deploying wildlife officials aboard trains. They can monitor speed limits in elephant crossing zones. Give advance notice to engine drivers of elephant movement in high-risk zones through the use of infrared detectors or a network of CCTV cameras with alarm sensors.

But if that was what the wildlife experts recommended or the scientific and sustainable solution, Minister Nalinda Jayatissa wanted implemented to save elephant herds and trains, it was nothing of the sort, either would have expected.

It was, indeed, an out-of-the-box, ingenious solution that none had thought of before. It was simple, easy to implement, and, most importantly, it wouldn’t add a red cent to the budget.

Addressing the Diyawanna House on February 21st, the Minister of Transport, Bimal Ratnayake, gallantly asked forgiveness from the House, expressing his deepest sorrow over the tragedy that befell seven elephants crossing the fatal railroad track.

Bimal Ratnayake told Parliament, “I must confess I do not have a special awareness of elephants. But after assuming office as Transport Minister, we have had discussions on December 9th, on December 30th, and again in January on the subject of elephant-train collisions. The Railway Department could only recommend the erection of flyovers at huge capital costs, and similar costly projects.”

“I proposed,” Minister Bimal continued, “instead of building costly flyovers, we involve the community to guard the treacherous 8 or 10-mile rail track—from the 133rd milepost to the 142nd—where such accidents have regularly happened. We told the Railway Department on three occasions to involve the ten village communities nearby. There is a large number of our Jana Balawege party youth who will gladly help for free, and with similar help from villagers and Grama Sevakas, the whole nine miles can be guarded. At the first sign of elephants, the volunteers can phone the station master and tell him to inform train drivers to watch out for elephants ahead. It’s not rocket science.”

It seems a unique idea and has received the respect it deserves on many TV discussion programmes, though some appear to scoff at first, no doubt when it’s successfully implemented, they will return to clap, as they did when the ‘Clean Lanka’ Campaign received a huge cheer.

Except some questions gnaw. Wouldn’t those volunteering villagers, JVP youth, and grama sevakas, whose unpaid duty it would be to prevent elephants from becoming crossing ducks before monolithic speeding passenger trains, themselves risk, in the surrounding darkness, becoming quacking ducks before monolithic herds of crossing elephants on their way to waterholes?

Wouldn’t those farming villagers have to till their fields by day and safeguard their crops from foraging elephants at night? And wouldn’t those government-employed grama sevakas be duty bound to serve the needs of their division’s resident villagers and be answerable to the Home Ministry? Or do individual ministers have the right to poach grama sevakas and second them for night shifts, to patrol lonely railway lines, flanked by wild elephant-infested dense jungles, with only a mobile phone and, perhaps, a torch for protection?

And what of the JVP’s army of Samaritan youth, ever ready and free to perform public services for free? Would their initial fervour last a night, a week, a year without any incentivising reciprocal altruism?

But do take heart. Every rough diamond must be cut and polished to make it shine. Likewise, every draft on the drawing boards must undergo the rectification process for it to become the master Blueprint. Till then it will remain to unappreciative eyes, like pearls to swine.

Until then, it’s wiser to warn train drivers on the Batticaloa-bound midnight express: No rush.

HANDUNNETTI: No collective cabinet responsibility for minister?

Handunnetti against 15 percent tax on digital service providersGreat news for Lankan digital service providers, down in the dumps this week, learning a 15 percent tax has been slapped on the dollars received for providing their services to companies abroad.

But not to worry, folks. Help is at hand. And it comes in the form of the New Age Messiah, with his sling bag of miracles, exhorting to defy Satan and to give the thumbs down to his evil midnight diktat, ‘Thou must pay a 15 percent kappan for dollars earned by providing a digital service abroad.’

‘Descend from yonder skies,’ Sunil Handunnetti, ‘your devotees await your advent on earth to lead them to the promised rich land, where a beautiful life’s assured to all. ‘Give us our due dollars,’ they say, ‘let us hear you reply.’

Sunil Handunnetti, the Czar of the JVP economic team, spake thus: “I do not agree with this tax. There should be a profit-based system for these individuals, ensuring the declaration of income generated for Sri Lanka. If they choose to keep their earnings abroad, then imposing taxes will be ineffective.”

Stash the dollars abroad? Is that ok? But wasn’t he awaiting a Lankan expat to send him a million dollars from abroad to help this country develop?

Sunil Handunnetti declared and could be heard all around on a 360-degree frequency: “As a minister, I do not agree with the 15% tax imposed on digital service export providers. These individuals work silently, without receiving any benefits from the government. Therefore, they should be encouraged to bring their earnings into the country rather than being burdened with additional taxes.”

Correct. Well said. Hallelujah.

But hold on. Isn’t he a cabinet minister, the one for industries? Not finance, no, that’s the president’s.

Doesn’t he have collective cabinet responsibility? To stick with his comrades and speak in one united voice as the Three Musketeers did when they avowed, ‘All for One, One for all.’

Not blab around on late night TV talk shows, giving false hopes to disgruntled digital service providers? When he does not have even the right to whine in protest outside the cabinet table.