PLAN BEE
10, Jul 2019
Prelims level : Environment EN2 Biodiversity
Mains level : GS3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
What is Plan Bee?
- Plan Bee, is an amplifying system imitating the buzz of a swarm of honey bees to keep wild elephants away from Railway Tracks.
Award:
- For Plan Bee, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) earned the best innovation award in Indian Railways for the 201819 fiscal year.
Why Plan Bee?
- There are 29 earmarked elephant corridors with the operating zone of NFR spread across the north-eastern states and parts of Bihar and West Bengal.
- Trains are required to slow down at these corridors and adhere to speed specified on signs
- But elephants have ventured into the path of trains even in non corridor areas, often leading to accidents resulting in elephant deaths.
About Elephant:
- Elephant as National Heritage Animal of India in 2010
- The status was recommended by a task force on elephant project
Types of Elephant:
- Indian Elephant: elephas maximus indicus
- Sri Lankan Elephant: elephas maximus maxicus
- Mainland Asian Elephants: elephas maximus sumatranus
- Conservation of Elephants in India – Project Elephant:
- There are 30 thousand elephants spread across 16 Elephant states in India.
- Maximum number of elephants is in Kerala, followed by Karnataka and Assam.
Three key areas:
- 1. Protection of wild elephants, their habitat and corridors
- 2. Address the issue of man-animal conflict and
- 3. Welfare of domesticated elephants
- This Project Elephant is being implemented in 13 states.
Elephant Reserves:
- There are a total of 28 elephant reserves.
- ERs, maximum number is in Assam and Odisha with five each.
Elephant Corridors:
- 183 identified elephant corridors in India
- State corridors: maximum number of them are located in Meghalaya
- Among, inter-state corridors, maximum are shared by Jharkhand and Odisha
- Maximum International corridors India shares with Bangladesh