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Rlys chug on as elephant deaths continue in UP

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Indian Railways seems to have little concern for elephants getting killed by trains passing through Rajaji National Park in Haridwar district, Uttar Pradesh.

The railway's financial constraints did not permit a diversion of the 18 km track that passes through the park, the only elephant reserve in North India. Seventeen elephants, besides deer and wild boar, have been killed ever since the track was laid about 10 years back.

With the last death having occurred on May 2, the UP government renewed its demand for diversion of the track, but the state wildlife authorities lament, "The issue has been gathering dust at the Northern Railway headquarters."

Railway Board member (traffic) Shanti Narain said, "It is not possible for us to concede the UP government's demand for diversion of the track, as it entails enormous costs."

Narain claims to have mooted asking the UP wildlife authorities to "cooperate in diverting the elephants' route''. According to him, an underway for the elephants could be developed. "We could utilise the undulated terrain to create underways below the tracks, along which long trenches could be dug to prevent the elephants from venturing on to the tracks," he said.

He seemed confident that once the plan was executed by the state government and the railways, elephant deaths as a result of collision with trains will stop. On how he considered it practical for the authorities to evolve a system whereby wild elephants would get channelised into a corridor to avoid being crushed by trains, the railway official shot back, "It is not as if the elephants use the entire stretch of 18 km to cross the track; they have a fixed route which the herds follow, so the task is not difficult, provided the government co-operates."

The railways' indifference towards the risk to the existence of wildlife was evident in the attitude of the top brass towards another government request to "limit the speed of night trains to 30 kmph, so that the animals could run to safety".

Counters Narain, "Since the trains have to move on a gradient, it is technically not possible to reduce the speed." However, when it was pointed out that the night trains mostly go down the slope from Haridwar, he pleaded that he would looked into the matter.

Significantly, the death of elephants has often been a cause for serious law and order problems, when herds of elephants have retaliated. "The herds have blocked the tracks for hours and damaged the tracks, delaying train movement, which led to demonstrations by commuters," a senior bureaucrat of the Wildlife Department said.

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