Amidst blame game between forest department and railways over the death of elephants by speeding trains in North Bengal, experts and forest officials have called for development of double-track of an alternative route already present in the area and which does not pass through the elephant region.
They have also said that the passage of all express trains along the controversial route be stopped from dusk to dawn with immediate effect since the railways were unable to implement the recommendation of speed limit restriction. This year had 18 jumbo casualties, the highest, on the killer track so far.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Chief Wildlife Warden, West Bengal, NC Bahuguna expressed surprise saying that Kabiguru Express train responsible for causing the last accident had been introduced recently and the forest department was not even aware. “The railways should have intimated us when some new train is introduced on this track,” he said.
Retorting to the above, Jayanta Kumar Sarma, PRO, North East Frontier Railway said, “Though we are told that this is an elephant area, there is no notified elephant corridor in the region.” According to Heerak Nandy, Member IUCN, (Commission on Ecosystem Management), it would be wrong to simply blame the Railways/ forest department alone. The hard truth according to him is lack of coordination between the forest department and Railways.
While, the train was definitely running at a speed above the prescribed limit of 25 kmph to 30 kmph, the visibility at the place of occurrence was not very poor. As per the decisions taken in the earlier meetings, the tracks had been kept clear of overgrown vegetation and being late evening it was not pitch dark either.
However, contrary to the claims of the Railways on notification of elephant corridors, he said the forest patches here are heavily fragmented and elephants are moving across the entire area. There is no corridor as such left, as there were much earlier.
Nandy who has a long experience of working on wildlife protection in North Bengal argued that it was a large herd of about 35-40 wild elephants moving in the vicinity of railway track for the past two-three days. So, regular patrolling and vigilance by the forest department could have certainly averted the incident.
Bahuguna, however, considered the laying of the broad gauge railway track from Siliguri to Guwahati passing through certain Wildlife Sanctuaries and Reserved Forests in North Bengal and its operation from 2004 is the worst culprit for these repeated incidents.
From 1974 to 2002, the number of cases of train hit elephants on metre gauge track was 27. However, in the past nine years, the figures have shot up to 52, with the worst being this year. Based on a PIl filed in 2000 against the Broad Gauging of the track, Calcutta High Court had allowed broad gauging of this track with certain recommendations, which are not being followed, he said.
Nandy further suggested that there is already an existing broad gauge track from New Jalpaiguri via Falakata to Alipurdwar which does not affect the vulnerable wildlife habitats or forests. This section can be developed in double track and the major bulk of rail traffic can be diverted accordingly.
Nandy, along with six others, filed yet another PIl in February this year, following repeated incidents of elephant train hits. He said there should be punishment for the concerned railway staffs, referring to the precedence of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand where for killing 3 elephants the train driver was sentenced to 3 years RI by a court in Dehradun, in November 2010.