Ramesh rap over jumbo deaths

Kaziranga, April 7: Union minister for forests and environment, Jairam Ramesh, today said he found it “peculiar” that while incidents of elephants being hit by trains had come down in other railway jurisdictions, these have only increased in the Northeast.

Nearly 37 per cent of the total cases of elephant mortality by train hits in the country is in Assam, which is the highest in the county followed by West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.

“I have sensitised railway minister Mamata Banerjee and other senior railway officials a number of times on the issue. I have done everything from my side,” Ramesh told reporters during his visit to Kaziranga.

Citing an example, Ramesh said while there were a number of such cases reported at the Rajaji National Park earlier, their incidence had fallen substantially.

Compared to this, seven elephants have already fallen victim to speeding trains in Assam in the past three months alone.

A source in the forest department alleged that “the railways is in no mood to listen to issues raised by the forest department as it was not on their list of priorities”.

Hence the deaths continue unabated.

The death of a baby elephant born just after its mother was hit by a train near Deepor Beel close to Guwahati on February 28 had turned into a rallying point for animal rights activists across the world.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya and a renowned elephant expert has suggested that the elephant be named “Baby Tragedy” for a global campaign against train accidents involving elephants.

The Wildlife Trust of India, along with the Northeast Frontier Railway and the Assam forest department have been running a joint project for more than a year now, identifying six locations in Karbi Anglong, Deepor Beel, Goalpara and Digboi in the state as being areas where elephants cross railway tracks.

“But it is difficult to patrol each and every area in Assam,” an official of Wildlife Trust of India said.

Ramesh said a task force on Project Elephant has been constituted to provide detailed recommendations to upgrade the project to make way for more effective conservation and management of wild as well as captive elephants.

Link - http://www.telegraphindia.com/110040...y_12313417.jsp

The elephant run over is now the order of the day.

It is now very obvious that Asian elephant population will plummet further in the north east where already the adverse sex ratio of tuskers coupled with in-breeding is playing havoc.

In the South there are less runovers, for the major elephant populations close to the periphery of the Railway tracks have been decimated.

India is in the process of loosing one of the most magnificant mammals on earth.

Corridor connectivity, expansion of existing habitats and complete control of poaching is the only key for holding elephants from extermination.

Many intensive studies have been done and suggestions provided, but unfortunately none of them were implemented. Rajaji - Corbett connectivity was proposed 15 years ago, but still to be considered !!