The killer track has claimed lives of 52 elephants in the past
decade; forest department and railways continue to blame each other
Train services resumed Thursday morning with a dead elephant stuck between the rails (Photos by Atish Sen)
The Indian Rilways might have Bholu, the adorable jumbo holding a
signal lamp, as its official mascot, but it cares little about its ilk.
This was proved once again when a speeding Kavi Guru Express ran over a
herd of elephants inside the Chalsa forest range in northern West
Bengal. The accident happened early Wednesday evening when a herd of 40
to 50 elephants were crossing the track. Six elephants died while
several others are seriously injured.
The 168 km railway track running between Siliguri and Alipurduar has
claimed the lives of 52 elephants since 2004 when it was converted from
metre gauge to broad gauge, increasing the frequency and speed of
trains. The latest accident takes the death toll to 18 this year. In
2010 when seven elephants were mowed down, the railways decided to
restrict the speed of trains. The fact that restrictions are not being
followed was made clear when four jumbos were killed in May this year.
Railway officials have refused to take the blame. Speaking to Bengali
news channel, 24Ghanta, the Union state minister of railways hailing
from Bengal, Adhir Chowdhury, said, “I can guarantee the train was not
speeding. It was running at less than 25 km/hr. The forest department
should have alerted the railways of the presence of a large herd in the
area.”
After the incident, railway services were halted for the night and
resumed at about 9 am Friday morning. One elephant carcass was still
hanging from the Jaldhaka bridge, stuck between the rails, photographer
Atish Sen told this correspondent from the spot over the phone. “I have
never seen such a ghastly incident. Elephants were literally chopped
into pieces,” he said.
There is no prescribed speed limit for the 168 km track, only 'cautious driving' prescribed in stretches
Few are buying the point that the train was running at a slow speed.
“If the train was running at a slow speed, it would have stopped after
mowing down one or two elephants. The fact that its dragged and killed
six elephants and injured few more shows it was speeding,” said Aniket
Modak from the wildlife non-profit Arohan in Jalpaiguri.
“There is a lack of clarity on the speed limit of trains inside the
forest. More importantly, there is no monitoring system in place to
check if trains are speeding,” said Heerak Nandi, wildlife activist from
Kolkata who along with other environmentalists have filed a petition in
the Kolkata High Court. “After seven elephants were killed in 2010, the
forest department did not even lodge an FIR, and so no one has ever
been brought to book,” he added.
Sumita Ghatak, divisional forest officer of Jalpaiguri, told Down To
Earth that there is no specified speed limit prescribed for the
stretch—only “cautious driving” is advised for stretches. She agreed
over-speeding was the probable cause and informed that FIRs were lodged
against train drivers for accidents this year.
Wildlife activists like Nandi have been demanding that the railways
use the alternate track between New Jalpaiguri and New Alipurduar. It is
a shorter route with track length of 143 km and can handle rail traffic
after it is made double line, they contend. Another long-standing
demand is to stop night traffic on the 168 km track till the alternate
route is developed.
Compared to the deplorable track record of checking jumbo deaths in
north Bengal, Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand has successfully
averted such accidents. The Train Hit Mitigation project in association
with Wildlife Trust of India has used a mix of night patrolling,
identifying vulnerable stretches and fixing speed limits. Between 1987
-2002, 18 elephants were killed on the 20 km stretch in Rajaji. For a
decade after the mitigation project started, there were no casualties;
in the past two years two elephants died on the track.
