KWS initiates exercise to monitor impact of Standard Gauge on wildlife

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has begun an elephant collaring exercise at the Tsavo National Park that is aimed at monitoring and providing insight into how the new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line will affect their lives.

The project, which is being undertaken with technical and logistical support from conservation lobby Save the Elephants (STE), will involve fitting 10 jumbos that are near the SGR in Tsavo's ecosystem with advanced satellite radio tracking collars.

Elephants from both sides of the railway track will be collared to scientifically monitor how they adapt to the railway line.

The four-day operation that starts Tuesday will be done mainly through aerial teams, with a KWS helicopter leading the darting operation backed by the Service's veterinary, capture and STE collaring specialists.

At least 133 kilometres of the 483km high-speed railway passing through the conservation area is being raised above the normal terrain levels and will be fenced off.

The elephant lobby's experts say the effect of this is that the largest national park in Kenya - home to the largest population of elephants in the country - will be split into two sections and possibly make wildlife mobility dependent on pre-existing wildlife crossing patterns difficult.

“This project is the first of its kind in Kenya and indeed in Africa. Beyond basic land-use planning, it seeks to understand how elephant movements are influenced by a major infrastructural project. It is an excellent precursor for future planning in wildlife rich areas where development is set to take place, such as on the LAPSSET corridor in northern Kenya,” said Dr Benson Okita, STE’s head of Monitoring.

The wildlife conservationists said that by generating detailed maps showing the intensity of use of the wildlife crossing structures, the collared elephants will provide an enhanced understanding of connectivity within the Tsavo ecosystem and in turn influence future infrastructural planning.

According to an agreement the infrastructure project implementers entered with the KWS, the track will be elevated on bridges to allow for wildlife migration and movement.

The railway line will have three bridges a kilometre in length with an underpass height of a minimum six metres and a height of over 20 metres, so the train runs 'above' the park and there are tunnels for the wildlife to pass through.

This is meant to give animals access to the eastern side of the park.

Availability of the park's resources has been affected by land fragmentation from competing land uses such as agriculture, human settlement and infrastructure development.

“As the use of elephant movement data to inform the planning process is refined, more precise spatial definition will allow the country to proactively secure space for wildlife as the Kenyan population grows,” said KWS Deputy Director of Species Conservation and Management Mr Patrick Omondi.

Originally, the SGR was to run parallel to the old line and along the fringes of the park.

Conservationists previously unsuccessfully opposed the realignment of the railway line allowing it to pass through the Nairobi National Park instead of the initial route in which would have displaced high-value properties that the government estimated would have cost it billions of shillings in compensation payments.

Conservation group Friends of Nairobi National Park (Fonnap) had mobilised 4,300 people to sign an online petition urging president Uhuru Kenyatta to stop the realignment.

The petition asked the Head of State to “halt the current plans to realign the railway and instead revive the previous plans for the Standard Gauge Railway alignment which follows the northern boundary of the park and is adjacent to the existing railway”.

Fonnap argued that the move would cut off acres of prime rhino habitat.

Following pressure from conservationists, an agreement was eventually reached with Kenya Railways agreeing to increase the number of bridges under which animals could pass from one to three.

READ: Deal sealed to have new railway cut through Nairobi park

According to the initial plan, the railway line was to cut through parcels of land owned by among others Bamburi Cement, Devki Steel Mills, Athi River Steel Plant, Kapa Oil Refineries, Orbit Chemicals, Muthama Heights Estate, Kenya Meat Commission, ISL Kenya and Murumbi African Heritage House.

The idea to shift the railway’s route was mooted by the National Lands Commission after it was established that there is no money to compensate the high-value properties affected by the earlier route.