After series of meetings between the Forest and the railway officials for the past two years, there may be some hope for jumbos in North Bengal. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has proposed to their headquarters in Delhi not to ply night trains through Duars. Majority of the cases of trains ramming into jumbos take place after dusk when visibility is poor in the forest.
Well-placed sources said the proposal by the NFR says all long distance goods-train as well as passenger-trains will not ply through the forest areas between Siliguri and Alipurduar junctions from 6pm to 6am in view of serious threats to wildlife, particularly elephants.
The proposal of the Railways if actually implemented will be a boon for protection of wildlife in the area, said VK Sood, Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife (North). “Since 2004, when the rail lines in this section were converted from metre to broad gauge, the area has been a death trap for wildlife particularly elephants”, he added.
This killer rail track, that is one of the most vulnerable in the country, runs through a stretch of 167 km passing through the wildlife sanctuaries of Mahananda and Chapramari besides Moraghat, Jaldapara National Park and Buxa Tiger Reserve.
Sood pointed out that several elephant corridors cut across the rail track passing through the forests of north Bengal. How best to avoid such mishaps have been the subject of discussions between the Railways and forest and wildlife officials over the past few years. This outcome can be a positive step in this regard, he felt.
This year alone 11 elephants had been mowed down by speeding trains. The latest was in May, when five elephants including a calf were hit by speeding Mahananda Express between Binnaguri and Banarhat under Jalpaiguri district. The worst such tragedy took place in September 2010, when seven elephants were killed.
In its last meeting, the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife raised serious concerns over fragmentation of elephant corridors. The issue of rail-hit wild herd of jumbos in North-Bengal had also come up for discussion. The members had pressed for the need to give a legal status to the elephant habitats/ reserves and regulatory role should be given to the National Board for Wildlife.
According to Anirban Mazumdar, local environmentalist, despite spree of hi-sounding resolutions and recommendation as e-tagging of jumbos or putting up electronic fencing etc, the hard fact is that lack of coordination between the forest department and railways still remains.
While the forest department needs to step up its vigil and monitoring particularly around the railway tracks, the railways too should follow-up on its decisions at ground level from time to time.