CHENNAI: Taking serious note of the death of elephants due to the loosely hanging live HT lines in the Western Ghats, the Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to replace the loosely hanging EB wires with insulated wires.

Heading the special division bench for wildlife protection along with Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, Justice N Sathish Kumar passed the direction on hearing a batch of cases. The petitioners prayed for a direction to Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to eliminate the loosely hanging live HT lines in the Western Ghats where elephants are dying due to electrocution.

The judges directed the government to file an action taken report on this issue on September 23.

The Southern Railways (SR) had also appraised the court about steps taken by the department to prevent the death of elephants in train accidents.

According to the SR, they have fixed cameras at every one kilometer to monitor the movement of the elephants in the forest area. The department also stated that works are under way to erect underpasses to ease wild animals to cross the track without meeting any accidents.

Recording the submissions, the court asked the Railways to use the thermal imagining system to track the movements of elephants to avoid accidents. The court also suggested the railways to appoint an appropriate person to monitor such works.

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