Guwahati, June 22: After ignoring appeals from wildlife enthusiasts and NGOs for years, a jolted Assam forest department today urged the railways to impose speed limits in areas where rail tracks pass through animal corridors. The forest department’s appeal came a day after three elephants — an adult and two calves — were mowed down by a speeding goods train near Deepor Beel, raising the hackles of conservationists who blamed both the department and railways for the tragedy.
The Wildlife Protection Society of India, one of the premier agencies working in the field of conservation, termed the incident as “shameful” and vowed to move railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and Union minister for environment and forests A. Raja to prevent repeat of such tragedies.
In a statement sent through email, society executive director Belinda Wright said, “It is shameful that there is no co-operation between the forest department and the railways in these matters.”
Conservator of forests (central Assam circle) R.D.S. Tanwar said the railways have been asked to impose a speed limit of 10 km in areas where there is constant movement of wildlife. The Kamakhya-Azara and Panikhaiti-Digaru routes have been identified for action.
The forest deportment officials will tomorrow meet their counterparts in the railways to discuss the modalities of the issue and the actions required to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
Tanwar said the forest department would maintain constant touch with railway officers over wildlife routes. “The railways should erect lights in areas frequented by animals,” he said.
“The drivers should also be instructed to go slow and let animals pass before the trains,” Tanwar added.
Sources said the problem should be tackled seriously. “As the railways cannot remove the tracks now, other protection measures should be taken to conserve the elephant habitat,” a source added.
The railway tracks through Deepor Beel had met with a lot of opposition when they were being laid in 1989-90.
The report of a state government committee on environmental implications associated with the broad gauge alignment through Deepor Beel in 1990 had even recommended that steps be taken to protect the existing natural corridors of wild animals, including elephants.
“The alignment should be planned in such a way that the reserve forest is least disturbed and displacement of wild population is minimum,” the report recommended. It had also suggested that the land adjacent to the railway tracks be kept free from encroachment.
The report had stated that to keep the noise level down, suitable plantations should be raised on either side of the tracks.
Deepor Beel is a large natural wetland with great biological and environmental importance, besides being the only major stormwater storage basin for Guwahati. With its rich and diverse flora and fauna, it was designated a Ramsar site in November 2002.