Elephants' death: Railway claims it was informed about just after mishap

[Mrudul Godbole]

Elephants' death: Railway claims it was informed about just after mishap
PTI | Jan 2, 2013, 10.44 PM IST

BHUBANESWAR: Rejecting Odisha government's claim that railway was alerted about movement of elephants near Subalaya in Ganjam district where six pachyderms were killed by a train, East Coast Railways (ECoR) today said it received the information just as the mishap took place on December 30.

"We have also not received any letter dated December 18 from the Odisha government as claimed by the forest department so far. Had the Forest Department informed us in time, the accident could have been avoided," S K Mohanty, divisional railway manager (DRM), Khurda Road Division said.

Mohanty said the railway control room received a phone call from the Chilika Wildlife Division at about 00.43am on Saturday. "But by that time, the accident had occurred."

He claimed the division was operating as per norms of joint general advisories issued by the ministry of environment and forest and ministry of railways to prevent train accidents involving elephants.

"We have put signboards to warn drivers and sensitised personnel on this matter. But we could not get the information in time to avoid such mishap," Mohanty said.

He said action was taken by Railways after the information from Forest Department was received.

Earlier, Forest and Environment minister Bijayshree Routray had claimed that the state government in a letter to Railways on December 18, had cautioned about the movement of elephants at the place where the accident took place and had alleged that the railways were callous towards wildlife.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The "blame-storming" continues. Elephants continue to die and will continue to die if such apathy persists. Railways have been known to be callous towards wildlife in general and elephants in particular.

When a vehicle hits a wild animal, the vehicle is impounded. Let the train should also be impounded and allowed to rot. Seize any train that hits and kills an elephant. That will seriously affect the railways in sending out replacement trains and will bring them to their knees. Only then the railways will realise the magnitude of the event.