Raising concern over the death of elephants in Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Railways to take steps to reduce speed of trains while travelling through forests inhabited by elephants to prevent death of tuskers on rail tracks.
A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri also proposes to change rail routes passing through forests and directed Railways to assist it in dealing with the issue.
It also asked the State Governments of Odisha, Assam, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to file response on the PIl seeking the court's intervention to prevent death of elephant on rail tracks.
The PIl was filed by one SP Nayak and his counsel advocate Sanjeeb Panigrahi which pleaded that every year around 80 elephants were killed on rail tracks passing through the forest.