The wildlife activists have sought the construction of animal-friendly ramps along the river banks to facilitate the unhindered movement of elephants who are often getting stranded in river water.

The death of an adult male elephant after the animal was trapped in the floodwater of the Mahanadi near Mundali barrage on 24 September has prompted the wildlife activists to suggest the State forest department initiate measures of this nature.

“Apart from better crowd control and the absence of lead role by the forest department, the tragedy could have been averted had there been animal-friendly ramps on both sides of the riverbank near the barrage”, opined Biswajit Mohanty, Secretary, Wildlife Society of Orissa in a letter to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) & Chief Wildlife Warden.

Apart from the death of the stranded elephant, two persons including a popular television journalist who was covering the rescue operation of an elephant near the barrage died after their boat capsized due to the strong current in the Mahanadi River.

The trapped tusker made at least two attempts to climb out of the river by walking to the end of the barrage spillway and walking up the shore towards a suitable slope to climb up.

Unfortunately, for a length of more than 100 feet, there is a sharp straight and tall concrete wall to protect the river bank from scouring which prevented him from climbing.

Had there been a 8 feet concrete or stone ramp leading to the top of the embankment at that point, it could have climbed up. Building a ramp does not compromise the safety of the river bank and hence this measure can be considered as a mitigation plan, Mohanty suggested.

Mishap of this nature has occurred in the past when the rivers swell. On 15 October 2018, several elephants had been swept away at the same spot but fortunately, none had died. It is not just elephants but cattle and other animals like bears, leopards, hyena or deer can also be swept away by floodwaters while attempting crossing the river, he pointed out.

Whenever elephants will be swept away in floods in the future they will land up at the barrage which is the first obstruction. So there is a need to provide some sort of mitigation step at this point to enable them to climb out of the river easily.

Elephants and other animals can use these ramps to climb up the steep embankment of the river since the straight and high concrete wall at the barrage prevents them from accessing the river bank.

Similar ramps can be thought of also at Naraj barrage as well as other Barrages of the state where elephant river crossing is recorded like Samal Barrage on Brahmani river; Kanpur barrage on Baitarani river, etc. The Elephant/Animal-Friendly Ramps can be similar to the ones constructed on the Rengali main canals, he concluded.