ANOTHER WILD ELEPHANT DIES ON KILLER RAILWAY TRACK

Chandra Prakash Goyal, Director of Rajaji National Park has sent the following information via e-mail on May 4, 2000

It was another black night on 2.5.2000 for Rajaji when Howrah bound Doon Express, running at high speed, rammed into a lactating female wild elephant. The elephant was dragged to a distance of about 70 metres and its hind portion was totally smashed. One leg was trapped beneath a bogey, liver and intestines were thrown around.The impact was so severe that the engine and three bogeys were derailed and it was just a matter of luck that they did not overturn, and no human life was lost.

The Forest department has time and again requested the Railways to reduce the speed limit from 40 kmph to 20 kmph for the trains running in the night on the 18 km portion passing throug Rajaji national park. This effectively means extra running time of 30 minutes for the three trains leaving Dehradun in the late evening i.e. Janata Express, Howrah Express and Mussoorie Express. This in turn will mean rescheduling the starting time of these trains by just 30 minutes. The trains will continue to reach Haridwar according to the current schedule and the Railways would not need to revise the timings of any train after Haridwar station.

It is high time that Railways listen to the silent suffering of these majestic elephants, and do something to show that they are also concerned about wildlife conservation, which continues to be a constitutional obligation of all Indians.

( Nirmal Ghosh who is deeply involved in conservation activities around Rajaji national park has further information):
(For a map of Rajaji national park please check out http://www.rajajinationalpark.com/guide_map.html)

Here's the accident data. The group of elephants was apparently crossing the track, probably to get at some fields, south of Motichur (Khairkhari Block area).

The group crossed south of Motichur, also south of the ''corridor'' that runs adjacent to (south of) the Raiwala ammo dump. i.e. they crossed on the northern outskirts of the town of Hardwar, probably to get at some fields across the track/highway.

The track issue is complex. The elephants cross the track and the highway between Motichur and Raiwala, usually trying to use the northern and southern corridors flanking the ammo dump/settlement. They do this to get at fields and to get at the Ganga valley. Occasionally of course they do not use the corridors, in which case they must find their way through habitation etc. This is what happened in this case.

BUT the majority of accidents has taken place on the east-west run to Kansrao; it is unusual for accidents to occur south of Motichur, this is only the second one. South of Motichur, the track forms the boundary of the western half of Rajaji, parallel to the highway. An electrified fence along the western side of the track could prevent elephants from crossing it, restricting them to funneling up the track to the Motichur area (where they often cross at night).

A few kms above Motichur, short of Rishikesh at Satnarayan, the track bends west-northwest to run through the top third of Rajaji to Kansrao, after which it exits the park. Another track continues to Rishikesh. It is on the Satnarayan-Kansrao section that the main problem occurs.

There are several proposals, which would work singly and in combination to avoid elephant deaths, human injuries and expensive damage repair and disruption to railway schedules :

1) Slow down the trains running between Motichur and Kansrao. According to RNP director C P Goyal, this would make only a half hour difference to the faster passenger trains; he would like the railways to move their departure times up by half an hour to allow for the slower time on the sensitive section. The railways resists this on two grounds : its cascading effect on schedules; and operational reasons (the gradient of the track).

2) Long-term solutions :

A - Place a moratorium on more trains on the Motichur-Kansrao section, where the elephants cross the track often in summer in a south-north movement to get at the water in the Song river valley.  

B - Place all additional trains on the route via Rishikesh, eventually rescheduling all trains on that route and abandoning the Kansrao section.

3) Fence the western flank of the track between Hardwar and Motichur.

4) Relocate the ammo dump to free a larger corridor so the elephants can get to the Ganga valley.


Here is the accident data :

Date / Time	Train name	Elephant casualty
28/4/87  10pm	Mussoorie Express	1 killed
16/3/88  2.18 am	goods train	1 killed
24/2/89 8.45pm	Janata Express	1 killed
1/1/92   5.30am	Rishikesh Passenger	1 killed
2/5/92   2.10am	goods train	4 killed
22/11/92 (unknown)	goods train	1 killed
10/5/94  10pm	Mussoorie Express	1 killed
17/5/94  8.40pm	Ujjain Express	1 killed
29/9/98  7.50pm	Janata Express	3 killed
3/4/99   10.30pm	Mussoorie Express	1 killed

• Between the months of March and May there have been 7 incidents (including the one this week which has not been included in the above table).
• Between December and February there have been 4 incidents.
• All have occurred during the hours of darkness.