What is Plan BEE | Latest Burnig Issues ( Current Affairs English)

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UPSC PRELIMS MCQ FOR YOU

• Which of the following statements is/are correct about Project Elephant (PE)?
1. Project Elephant is implementing MIKE programme of CITES.
2. Project Elephant (PE) is a centrally sponsored scheme.
a) Only 1
b) Only 2
c) Both
d) None

PLAN ‘BEE’

To keep elephants at a distance from railway tracks, Indian Railways recently launched “Plan Bee”, under which a device has been installed near the railway tracks in Guwahati, Assam that amplifies the buzz of swarming honeybees.

NOTES

• As speeding trains crashing into elephants has been a serious cause of concern for some time now in the North Eastern part of the nation, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone of the Indian

Railways has come up with an interesting solution.

• To keep elephants at a distance from railway tracks, Indian Railways recently launched “Plan Bee”, under which a device has been installed near the railway tracks in Guwahati, Assam that amplifies the buzz of swarming honeybees.
• As elephants are afraid of bees, especially of being stung on their sensitive trunk, they stay away from railway tracks.

COST AND EFFECTIVENESS

• Through this device, the buzzing sound of bees is audible from a distance of 600 metres.
• Therefore, elephants present within a distance of 600 metres can easily hear the sound of this device, which prevents them from coming near the hazardous railway tracks and being killed.
• Another interesting fact is that, these devices costed Indian Railways only Rs 2,000 per device!

ELEPHANT DEATHS

As per the data provided by Indian Railways, 70 elephants have died since 2013 after being hit by trains As Per NFR as well as the forest department records, 16 elephants have been killed in 2016 and at least a dozen in 2017.

In the month of February this year, when a passenger train hit a herd crossing the tracks in the central part of Assam, 4 elephants were killed. Last December, a pregnant female elephant was also killed in a similar situation.

SPEED LIMIT

Meanwhile, to prevent elephants from being hit, Indian Railways has also imposed speed limit of 30 kmph to 50 kmph in several stretches of railway tracks across Northeast.

DWINDLING FOREST AREA, POACHING ENDANGER ELEPHANTS IN ASSAM
• As per 2017’s census of elephants, India is home 27,312 elephants accounting for 55 per cent of total world elephant population.
• Since 1986, Asian Elephants Elephas maximus, the variety found in India, have been listed as Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list. Among all
the sates, Assam has the second highest number of elephants, after Karnataka (6049)

NO FORESTS

The elephant population in Assam has increased from 5,246 in 2002 to 5,719 in 2017,
but now faces serious challenge due to dwindling forest areas.

UPSC PRELIMS MCQ FOR YOU

NOTES
• Project Elephant (PE) was launched by the Government of India in the year 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with

following objectives:
• To protect elephants, their habitat & corridors
• To address issues of man-animal conflict
• Welfare of captive elephants

MONITORING AGAINST POACHING

Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) programme of CITES in 10 ERs since January 2004. It is mandated by COP resolution of CITES. It was started in South Asia in 2003