Elephant deaths on tracks: Forest officials want route changed

KOLKATA: With the number of elephant deaths on rail tracks in north Bengal on the rise, wildlife officials want the railways to divert some trains through the Cooch Behar-Falakata-New Jalpaiguri route instead of the route which passes through 74 km of forest.

Two more elephants were knocked down by trains last week, taking the total number of elephants killed by trains on this route since 2007 to 17, forest department sources said.

Field director of the Buxa Tiger Reserve R P Saini said that the Railway should consider diverting some trains through the Cooch Behar-Falakata-New Jalpaiguri route instead of the 168-km-long Alipurduar-New Jalpaiguri route which passes through 74 km of forest which the elephants use for passage.

Divisional Railway Manager of Alipurduar S Singh said the Garopara level crossing, near Kalchini, where an elephant was killed last week, was outside the elephant zone and there was no question of trains maintaining a speed limit of 20 km per hour.

Describing the incident as unfortunate, he said that train drivers always follow restrictions in specified places.

Saini said they had taken up the issue with the Railways regularly and perhaps as a consequence of it, engine drivers were given training. However, restriction on the speed and number of night trains was necessary, he said.

Chief Conservator of Forest, wildlife (North) S B Patel said that an expert committee formed to look into the problem, had recommended restriction of train speed and reduction in the number of night trains on this route since elephant movement was seen mainly at night.