Centre suggests underpass and flyover for safety of elephants
The
Odisha government provided startling figures about elephant deaths on
tracks and due to electrocution. In the last 10 years, 122 elephants
have died – 15 knocked down by trains and 107 due to electrocution.
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NEW DELHI: The Centre's suggestion to construct underpasses and flyovers for safe passage of elephants
to reduce deaths on railway tracks evoked the Supreme Court's derisive
comment - why not put up a road sign to inform the pachyderms to use
these as safe paths.
Puns apart, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Vikramjit Sen lost no time in conveying the seriousness with which it viewed the large number of elephants getting knocked down in the eastern and north-eastern states - Odisha, West Bengal and Assam - and asked the Centre to study the safety module implemented by Karnataka, which reported no such death of elephants on tracks last year.
The Odisha government provided startling figures about elephant deaths on tracks and due to electrocution. In the last 10 years, 122 elephants have died - 15 knocked down by trains and 107 due to electrocution.
The bench told solicitor general Mohan Parasaran to impress upon the railway ministry that elephants were the natural habitants of forest and the railways was the encroacher. "The elephant safety gets primacy over running trains," it said before asking the government to study the Karnataka method of achieving zero elephant mortality on tracks.
But the railways appeared riled by the Supreme Court's earlier order directing it to reduce the speed of the trains on tracks passing through forests across the country. In an affidavit it said: "For a particular region, there cannot be any singular strategy -for example imposition of speed restrictions or provision of under passes or fencing of railway lines etc, as a panacea to this problem."
It said elephant safety is of serious concern to the railways, but added, "The problem would be unique to each region based on factors like topography, density of wild life etc, and therefore, solutions have to be site specific."
The railways are unwilling to further divert trains or reduce the speed limit to below 50 km/hr on Siliguri-Alipurduar line, the most accident-prone elephant corridor in West Bengal. Diversion of trains to a lower Siliguri-Falakata line has already choked this track, it said.
"Cancellation of trains on this lower line would mean reduction of trains to the vital north-eastern states. The upper line has been serving vital strategic and defence establishments like Hashimara and Binaguri for long and any proposal for reduction or cancellation of trains on this route would not be advisable," it said.
To a suggestion from petitioner Shakti Prasad Nayak's counsel Sanjeeb Panigrahi, the railways said: "Construction of elevated tracks over the entire stretch of 168 km (passing through forested areas) will have huge cost implications (Rs 8,000 crore). Even the cost of laying elevated corridor in the reserved forest area covering a length of 17.4 km will be exorbitantly high apart from causing continuous disturbances to wild life for an extended period."
The bench said: "The ministry of environment and forests and Railways will examine all those aspects and submit their detailed suggestions and steps they are going to take so that such untoward incidents would not happen in future and wild life could be protected." It sought replies from the ministries in two weeks.
Puns apart, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Vikramjit Sen lost no time in conveying the seriousness with which it viewed the large number of elephants getting knocked down in the eastern and north-eastern states - Odisha, West Bengal and Assam - and asked the Centre to study the safety module implemented by Karnataka, which reported no such death of elephants on tracks last year.
The Odisha government provided startling figures about elephant deaths on tracks and due to electrocution. In the last 10 years, 122 elephants have died - 15 knocked down by trains and 107 due to electrocution.
The bench told solicitor general Mohan Parasaran to impress upon the railway ministry that elephants were the natural habitants of forest and the railways was the encroacher. "The elephant safety gets primacy over running trains," it said before asking the government to study the Karnataka method of achieving zero elephant mortality on tracks.
But the railways appeared riled by the Supreme Court's earlier order directing it to reduce the speed of the trains on tracks passing through forests across the country. In an affidavit it said: "For a particular region, there cannot be any singular strategy -for example imposition of speed restrictions or provision of under passes or fencing of railway lines etc, as a panacea to this problem."
It said elephant safety is of serious concern to the railways, but added, "The problem would be unique to each region based on factors like topography, density of wild life etc, and therefore, solutions have to be site specific."
The railways are unwilling to further divert trains or reduce the speed limit to below 50 km/hr on Siliguri-Alipurduar line, the most accident-prone elephant corridor in West Bengal. Diversion of trains to a lower Siliguri-Falakata line has already choked this track, it said.
"Cancellation of trains on this lower line would mean reduction of trains to the vital north-eastern states. The upper line has been serving vital strategic and defence establishments like Hashimara and Binaguri for long and any proposal for reduction or cancellation of trains on this route would not be advisable," it said.
To a suggestion from petitioner Shakti Prasad Nayak's counsel Sanjeeb Panigrahi, the railways said: "Construction of elevated tracks over the entire stretch of 168 km (passing through forested areas) will have huge cost implications (Rs 8,000 crore). Even the cost of laying elevated corridor in the reserved forest area covering a length of 17.4 km will be exorbitantly high apart from causing continuous disturbances to wild life for an extended period."
The bench said: "The ministry of environment and forests and Railways will examine all those aspects and submit their detailed suggestions and steps they are going to take so that such untoward incidents would not happen in future and wild life could be protected." It sought replies from the ministries in two weeks.
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