After the tragic death of seven wild elephants, one of them a calf, by a goods train speeding through the forests of Dooars last night, the Union ministry of forest and environment has called a meeting of the chief wild life wardens. The date of the meeting has not been fixed yet but it is likely to be held in the first week of October, says one of the experts involved with the conservation of elephants at the national level.
Expressing shock, Jairam Ramesh, minister in charge of forest and environment, has said in a statement from New York, “This is not the first time such a mishap has taken place, although the scale with which it has taken place now is unprecedented, particularly in the North-East Frontier Railway." He said that he would meet with officials of the Railway Board after his return to India on September 26.
Only last week Jayram Ramesh had written a letter to all seven chief ministers of the states where there are sizeable population of wild elephants.
The chief minister of West Bengal is one of the recipients of this letter. It is learnt that Jayram Ramesh has drawn their attention to the measures recommended by the Elephant Task Force in their report submitted to the ministry on August 31.
“It is a wake-up call for everybody. People are outraged at the brutal killing of seven elephants,” says a member of the Task Force, who does not want to be quoted.
The 183-page report prepared by the Task Force has specifically mentioned the peril of elephants in Dooars area where there are about 300-350 wild elephants at present, and their corridors of passage are well identified.
But, “One of the most important hurdles in protection of these identified corridors is that they do not have any legal protection under India's Wildlife (Protection) Act or the Environment (Protection) Act,” the report observed.
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It has mentioned that since 1987, at least 150 have been run over by trains in the country (the recent accident excluded).
These include 36 per cent cases from Assam and 26 per cent from West Bengal.
While demanding a budget of Rs 600 crore in the 12th Plan for the preservation of elephants, the task force has recommended that all expansion of railway projects over the value of Rs 100 million through elephant habitats should be subjected to environment impact assessment.
The task force also recommended allocation of a good portion of the budgetary amount to compensate the farmers when their crop is wasted by elephants.
On an average, nearly 400 people are killed annually by elephants and about 100 elephants are killed by people in retaliation.