Railways blames elephants for straying

NEW DELHI - Terming the mowing down of seven elephants by a freight train near Jalpaiguri in West Bengal as “unfortunate”, senior Indian Railways officials Friday said the tragic incident occurred in a “denotified area”, where elephants are not known to roam and the railways was trying to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Friday said he will take up the matter with the Indian Railways so that such incidents are avoided in future.

The railways said they had no prior information from forest officials about the movement of elephants in what they called ‘denotified’ area, between Binnaguri and Banarhat stations of Alipurduar division in Jalpaiguri, where the accident took place Wednesday night. In a notified forested area, known as an elephant corridor, railway drivers drive very slowly, at a maximum speed of 50 km an hour, with the whistle blowing constantly to warn the animals, said an official.

In cases when they get no information from forest officials about the movement of an elephant herd or other animals, the drivers keep extra vigil. “But there was no information,” the official said.

The official also denied the report that the seven elephants were mowed down while rescuing two cubs trapped on the railway track. Had this been the case, there would not have been such a high casualty, he said.

Had the herd gathered around a spot on the railway track, all of them wouldn’t have been on the track at the same time, and would not have got mowed down, he explained.

According to the official, the high casualty shows that all the elephants were probably walking on the track itself and by the time the driver spotted them, it would have been too late.

On applying the brake, even with maximum force, the trains, hauled by diesel engines, are unable to stop before covering a distance of 750 metres to a kilometre, he said.

The official said the railways has been trying to find a permanent solution to the problem of elephants coming on the tracks and getting killed.

The railways has forwarded proposals to the forest department suggesting measures like fencing of tracks, erecting ramps alongside to prevent animals coming on the tracks and constructing underpasses at main elephant passage spots for the pachyderms to cross to the other side.

The proposals, which will cost about Rs.7 crore to implement, have been sent by the concerned Zonal Railway to the chief conservator of forests, West Bengal, said the official.

Ramesh said he has written a number of times to the railway minister and “personally held several meetings with railway officials. We have also discussed measures to avoid such accidents,” he said in a statement.

The minister said he will once again take up the matter with railways to avoid such tragedies in future.

The forest department has lodged a complaint against the railways, including the driver of the goods train.