In the second incident over the past eight months and the third since 2016, an elephant was mowed down by a speeding train through the forest area under Rajaji National Park on Tuesday morning.
A probe has been ordered by the Rajaji Park director. It is learnt that the elephant which died was a female.
The forest officials informed that the incident occurred at around 4.45 am when the speeding Nandadevi Express was running through Koyalpura area under Jamunkhata beat of Kansro Range. The pachyderm died on the spot.
The wildlife lovers cried foul of the senior park officials, including the director and the deputy director, not caring to visit the ground zero. They further said that the director was dithering on whether to order a probe into the death or not. Pressure mounted on him forced him to finally order the probe, they said.
Speaking to The Pioneer, former honorary wild life warden and member of state wildlife board Rajeev Mehta said that it is sad that close to 20 elephants have died unnatural deaths well inside the Rajaji National Park over the past two and half years.
“For many years from 2002 to 2011, no such accidental death was reported in the park area. However, such deaths started happening since 2012 and three elephants have so far been mowed down by the speeding trains since,” he said.
When asked the reason, Mehta said that the laidback attitude of the park officials was mainly responsible for such accidents. “Earlier, the railway front line staffers were more vigilant along the sensitive tracks. Whenever a movement was marked the railway officials were cautioned and the trains subsequently slowed down.
This happened several times in the past when the elephants were noticed moving through Motichoor and Kansro ranges of the forest which are among the principal elephant corridors. However, now the staffers have lowered their guard and it is resulting in such deaths,” he added.
When queried over why he did not care to visit the spot, the director of Rajaji National Park Sanatan Sonkar said that he was home for the past three days following his mother’s demise.
“Besides, the DFO was in Delhi to attend a meeting,” he added. “It is sad that all the three accidents have been caused by the same Nandadevi Express. I have ordered a probe into the matter and spoken to DRM railways and the chief engineer too and expressed my concern over the pilots of the train not observing the speed limits fixed for these two ranges -Kansro and Motichoor,” he said, adding that 100 feet space being cleared along the tracks, the pilots of the trains can now see 1 km of the tracks and their surrounding places.