Gaur dies after being hit by goods train
28-11-2009 Staff Reporter, The Hindu, India
KOLKATA: A gaur, listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IIUCN), was killed after a freight train hit it. The incident occurred at the spot where the tracks pass through the forests in north Bengal’s Chapramari Wild Life Sanctuary on Saturday.
“The bison was killed on the spot as a goods train collided with it while it was attempting to cross the tracks,” Silwant Patel, chief conservator of forests (Wildlife), north Bengal told The Hindu over telephone.
On the rise
The killing of elephants, gaurs and other animals by speeding trains is a common occurrence and such incidents are on the rise, Mr. Patel said.
With the conversion four years ago, the speed of the trains has increased to as high as 110 kilometres per hour and the frequency gone up from six daily trains to about 28 trains every day, he said.
“The matter was taken up by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh in a meeting with representatives of the Railway Board in September, where we asked them to implement the recommendations of an expert committee, but no action has been taken,” he said. The committee identified six segments of the track line, that add up to 42 kilometres, as the most vulnerable spots where trains should not run at speeds exceeding 25 kilometres per hour.
The problem has implications that are wider than incidents in which animals are being killed, which in itself is a serious matter, he said.
“It is being observed that elephants are avoiding the region where the railway line runs through and migrating towards the southern fringes of the forests of north Bengal where there are denser pockets of human habitation.”
The incidents of man-animal conflict have increased over the last year and there may also have been a change in the migration routes of elephants, he said.
(Bron: http://www.hindu.com/)
(Bron foto: http://yathin.livejournal.com/tag/bandipur)
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