Do we care for our national heritage animalIJ
The elephant may have been declared India's national heritage animal but that has scarcely made the tusker any safer in this country. The death of at least six elephants, including a calf, in north Bengal on Wednesday, is testimony to this. The 40-member herd was travelling through the Nagrakata forest range near Jalpaiguri when it came under the killer wheels of the Guwahati-bound Kabiguru Express. Wednesday's bloodbath (the death toll is expected to rise as several jumbos have been critically injured) is only the latest addition to a long list of such incidents that are common along railway lines which run through elephant corridors. The animals use these corridors to move from one forested area to another in search of sustenance. They are an important part of overall wildlife conservation efforts, but often the journey proves to be perilous for the jumbos. Indeed, just the railway line from Siliguri to Alipurdwar alone has claimed about 25 elephants since 2010. The number nearly doubles when one includes the entire Dooars region, and it is only matched by the high death toll in neighbouring Odisha where too such accidents have been happening with alarming frequency. In December last year, five jumbos were mowed down by a train in Ganjam district, raising the death toll of elephants who have died unnatural deaths in the past five years to more than 300. So terrible was the impact of the collision that a mature elephant foetus was pushed out of the womb and carcasses were found half-a-kilometre away from the accident site. Forest officials have sought the assistance of their colleagues in the railways to ensure safe passage for the elephants, but the two groups are yet to come on the same page. This was the case in Odisha last year and was painfully apparent on Wednesday when forest and railway officials could not even agree on the number of dead — while the former put it at six, the latter have pegged it at three. Unsurprisingly, neither wants to take responsibility for the mindless deaths. Forest officials blame the railways and say that the train was moving at a speed that is far more than the 30 kmph limit prescribed for such sensitive areas. Railways officials, on their part, point out that the area is yet to be designated as an elephant reserve and also that the forest department failed to inform the railway control room of the approaching herd, as it is obligated to.
Clearly, there are a lot of flaws in the system which need to be addressed sooner than later. Setting an upper speed limit for trains travelling through national parks and forests — it was done only earlier this year — was a good move, but as this incident shows, it has to be implemented better. Also wildlife sensitive areas must be immediately demarcated as such. Finally, there has to be far greater policy coordination between the rail (ironically, Indian Railways used a baby elephant in its logo) and forest authorities.