‘Railway not lowering train speed on track inside forest range’

DEHRADUN: The forest department officials have accused the railway authorities of ignoring their suggestion on reducing the speed of trains on a track which falls in

Kansrau

range of Rajaji Tiger Reserve. On February 17 this year, an elephant was killed after being run over by a speeding train in the forest range.

Wildlife warden Pradeep Kumar said, “The railway officials are not cooperating with us. They haven’t lowered the speed of trains from 50-55km/h to 40km/h during the day and 35km/h at night in accordance with the decision taken by the

National Wildlife Board

in 2015 before giving approval for electrification of trains on the stretch. During a meeting between forest and railway officials last month, it was decided that railway staffers will carry out patrolling of the track along with forest officials. So far, the railway authorities have not given the name of staffers who will be part of the patrolling team.”

Kumar

added that the railways and forest department were to jointly clear the track of garbage and leftover eatables which attract wild animals.

Vaibhav Singh, divisional forest official in Rajaji Tiger Reserve, said that a follow-up meeting at a higher level needs to be planned as the earlier meet has failed to achieve the desired results.

Head of forest force,

Jai Raj

said that soon he would hold a meeting with the railway divisional regional manager to find a solution to this problem.

Meanwhile, railway state superintendent

Sita Ram Sonkar

said that it was not feasible to reduce the train speed as it would defeat the purpose of starting electrification of trains.
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