Tigers, lions and elephants are being mowed down by high speed
trains in India with alarming regularity outraging animal rights
activists but the federal or state governments don’t bat an eyelid.
Last
month, three lions were run over by a goods train in at Borala in
Gujarat’s famed Gir forest. Fences were erected on either side of rail
tracks in Rajula-Savarkundla region of the western state after six lions
were crushed to death in 2014-2015 preventing more tragedies. But the
tracks are not fenced in Borala. Official reason: “Too costly”.
Last
month, two tiger cubs were mowed down by a train in the Chichpalli
forest of Maharashtra. A spate of protests on social media did not
elicit even a flicker of response from callous railway officials or
forest wardens tasked with protecting endangered wildlife.
And
when it comes to elephant deaths on rail tracks, India holds the world
record! Government statistics show that 150 jumbos were run over by
trains between 1987 and 2010. But in just eight years, from 2010 to
2017, the toll rose to 120.
In 2018,
trains crushed as many as 20 elephants to death in their habitats,
signaling a new low. Ordinary citizens are horrified by blood-spattered
television images of jumbos mowed down by trains hurtling thorough
forests in the dead of night.
Footage of
cranes removing elephantine carcasses from tragedy sites is
heart-wrenching. But the outrage and sadness hasn’t jolted officials
out of their stupor. Ironically, elephant is the mascot of Indian
Railways. But they are still falling prey to more and faster trains
running through elephant habitats in several states.
Queen of elephants
Parbati Barua is a wildlife conservationist and the subject of a BBC documentary Queen of the Elephants.
She told Al Arabiya English that while “human life is precious, it is
even more important to save majestic animals like elephants, tigers and
lions because they are becoming extinct even as human population is
steadily growing.”
“As a
conservationist, I firmly believe that shielding dwindling wildlife from
attacks by man is more important than saving man from animals. In the
so-called man-animal conflict, I am for animals.”
The
federal and state administrations are unmoved but scientists clearly
are more compassionate and doing whatever they can to help endangered
animals survive in the face of adversity.
Experiments
are underway with an electronic device which replicates the sound of
angry bees. Elephants are known to be so terrified of the sound of
buzzing that they take to their heels. Playing the recording will keep
jumbos away from railway tracks which have turned into death traps.
Another
device driven by a set of four sensors – the brainchild of a professor
at New Delhi’s Institute of Technology (IIT) - will alert train drivers
in the near future about the movement of elephants along the tracks. The
countdown for the implementation of these innovative gadgets has begun.
Last Update: Friday, 11 January 2019 KSA 10:26 - GMT 07:26
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/healthy-living/2019/01/11/Trains-in-India-crushing-elephants-and-tigers-as-officials-look-the-other-way.html
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