For years, elephants crossing railway tracks along the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border were being hit by trains. The deaths were happening along railway lines that passed through their natural habitat, but the exact locations and timings of these accidents needed closer examination.

In 2021, Dayanand Krishnan, a 52-year-old civil engineer and GIS consultant from Chennai, worked with fellow RTI activist R Pandiarajan to obtain information from Southern Railway. They wanted to know where the elephants were dying, at what time, and on which section of the tracks.

What came back was data Dayanand could map.

Dayanand, who has spent nearly a decade filing RTIs on everything from railway construction to water quality, plotted the accident locations and identified patterns. The findings helped show which stretches of track were particularly dangerous for elephants, including areas close to water sources.

The study drew media attention and highlighted the need for better safety measures. The Madras High Court subsequently pursued measures to prevent elephant deaths, including thermal cameras and AI-based detection systems along the tracks.

"Around 6,000 to 7,000 elephant sightings have been safely recorded on the Tamil Nadu side," Dayanand says. "The system is now implemented."

But across the border in Kerala, elephants continue to lose their lives on railway tracks. On 12 August 2026, an elephant and its calf were killed by a train near Palakkad in Kerala. The Madras High Court has since called for the detection system operating in Tamil Nadu to be extended to the Kerala stretch as well.

For Dayanand, the experience shows what can happen when government information reaches people who know how to use it.

And he believes every citizen should know how to ask for that information.

You can ask the government for answers, too

You don't need to be an activist or an engineer to file an RTI.

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 gives every Indian citizen the right to request information held by public authorities, whether a municipal corporation, a government ministry or a railway department.

You can ask for records about an unfinished road, water-quality reports, the status of a government project or how public money has been spent.

The authority is generally required to respond within 30 days. You don't need a lawyer or an explanation for why you want the information. All it takes is a written or online application and the prescribed fee, generally Rs 10.

It's one of the few tools an ordinary citizen can use to seek official records and hold public authorities accountable. Yet Dayanand believes too few people take advantage of it.

After eight years and hundreds of applications, he has learnt what separates an RTI that gets a useful response from one that leads to delays and repeated follow-ups.

Who should your RTI go to, and what should it say?

The process begins before you write your first question.

"Most of the time, people don't address it to the proper authority," Dayanand says. "That's the major issue."

Sending an application to the wrong department can delay the response or leave you waiting while it is transferred. So, before drafting your RTI, find out which public authority holds the information and who is responsible for handling the request.

Here are the steps Dayanand recommends:

Find the right Public Information Officer (PIO). Most departments list their PIOs on their websites, sometimes by zone or ward. If you're unsure, call the department and find out which office handles the information you need.

Find the right Public Information Officer (PIO). Most departments list their PIOs on their websites, sometimes by zone or ward. If you're unsure, call the department and find out which office handles the information you need.

Ask for existing records rather than explanations. "Never ask 'how', 'what', 'when' or 'why'," Dayanand says. "These are questions, and they will reject the application." This is his advice on drafting requests, rather than a legal prohibition on particular words. Under the RTI Act, officials must provide information available in their records, but they are generally not required to create fresh explanations. Instead of........

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