West Bengal has finally woken up to the call of wildlife activists, who have been voicing concern over the high incidence of elephant deaths on railway tracks
State forest dept sends proposal to Railways to protect elephants
KOLKATA: West Bengal has finally woken up to the call of wildlife activists, who have been voicing concern over the high incidence of elephant deaths on railway tracks—around nine since 2004—in the state’s northern parts.
“The West Bengal forest department has formulated a proposal and submitted it to the union ministry of environment and forests. The proposal has been accepted and handed over to the railway board,” West Bengal principal chief conservator of forests Atanu Raha said.
He said this was the first time the matter had been taken up at the central level to prevent frequent mowing down of wild animals due to the movement of fast-moving trains on a 185km stretch between Siliguri and Alipurduar.
Since 2004, when the railway track between Siliguri and Alipurduar was converted into a broad gauge line—allowing an increase in train speed—nine elephants and two bisons have died on that stretch.
T Rabha, North-East Frontier Railway chief public relation officer, however, said: “The proposal may have been submitted to the railway board but it has not been implemented at the grassroot level.”
He said some precautionary measures like demarcated elephant corridors and an automatic whistling system were already in place on the railway stretch in the Dooars area of north Bengal.
“We act upon the suggestions put forward by different state forest departments and constantly try to keep in touch with them. We provide transportation to serve the people’s interests and it’s not possible for us to stop running trains due to elephant deaths. We can only take necessary action to prevent such accidents,” he said.
Rabha said instructions had been given to the motormen to keep the speed of trains under control while passing through the stretch. We have also identified elephant corridors and declared a few zones as vulnerable.
According to wildlife activists, the north Bengal forest range is considered to be the highest man-animal conflict zone in India and now the situation has become really worrisome.
Forest officials say around 10 elephants die every year due to the man-elephant conflict in north Bengal. Almost 350 elephants, according to the 2005 census, live in a 200km forest stretch near the West Bengal-Assam border at Sankosh and the India-Nepal Mechi border.
This entire forest corridor is fragmented by several railway lines that pose a major hindrance to elephants going from one forest to another in search of food and water.
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