November 2024
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Railways negatively impact wildlife owing to the risks of collision. In Sri Lanka, elephant-train collisions are a matter of concern as they pose risks to this 'endangered' species. The present study focused on analyzing elephant collision data for four selected railway lines of the Eastern and Northern railway network in Sri Lanka: Maho-Gal Oya, Gal Oya-Batticaloa, Gal Oya-Trincomalee, and Maho-Anuradhapura. Data from 2010 to 2023 were obtained from the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and the Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) and supplemented by field assessment. The main objective was to identify collision hotspots through spatial analysis. The two-dimensional kernel density function of ArcGIS 10.8 software was used to identify hotspots. Six collision hotspots were identified along the four selected railway lines. The most critical hotspot, which was the longest (26.8 km) and accounted for 81.8% (n=27) of collisions along the Maho-Gal Oya line, was located between Palugaswewa and Gal Oya. Two hotspots were identified along the Gal Oya-Batticaloa line, one between Gal Oya and Minneriya (10.2 km), accounting for 22.2% (n=6) of collisions and the other at Welikanda (15.3 km), accounting for 44.4% (n=12) of collisions on the line. Another two hotspots were identified along the Gal Oya-Trincomalee line, one close to Gal Oya which was the shortest (5.2 km) and accounted for 14.3% (n=2) of collisions, and the other between Aluth Oya and Kantale (11.4 km), accounting for 71.4% (n=10) of collisions on the line. A single hotspot was identified between Ambanpola and Galgamuwa (10.7 km), accounting for 90.9% (n=11) of collisions along the Maho-Anuradhapura line. Most hotspots were located in areas where railroads traversed through or were in proximity to protected areas, or areas heavily used by elephants. Implementing targeted mitigation measures at the identified hotspots may help reduce the incidence of elephant-train collisions in the country.