Guwahati: Three elephants were killed by a speeding train and two were injured yesterday on a railway track running through Rani-Garbhanga Reserve Forest and Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary near Azara Railway station near Guwahati , Assam . The three elephants that were killed by the train in Azara raise the toll of elephant deaths due to train hits in India between 2002 and 2004 to 26. The accident happened around midnight on Sunday leaving three of the elephants dead and two injured. A team from Guwahati zoo is at the accident site. The railway line is only four years old and this accident is the first of its kind in this area. More than 80 percent of elephant habitat in India has some form of human disturbance, and about 100 elephants die each year from conflict with humans. There were 72 elephant deaths due to train hits between 1987 and 2001. The wildlife toll taken by highways and railways mounts every year. Railway lines passing through forested areas continue to pose a very real threat to elephants, tigers and other wildlife.

A herd of 10 elephants was crossing the railway track near Chakradeo village. The first to be hit by the rain speeding from Kamakhya to Gwalpara was a female adult. Such was the impact of the train that she was dragged for almost 200 m before her body was totally smashed. The other two elephants that were killed included a sub-adult female and a male calf. One injured animal with a broken leg managed to limp back into the forest. The other injured animal has its trunk and back badly injured and is still lying in the waters of Deepar Beel. Rathin Burman centre manager of the CWRC (Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation), of Wildlife Trust of India said, “although the Guwahati zoo vets are trying to tranquilize and treat the animal, it is unlikely to survive.”

On the westen edge of the city of Guwahati, en route to the airport, Deepar Beel is home to scores of species of indigenous and migratory birds. But over the years, encroachment has increased and the Guwahati- Jogighopa broad gauge track routed through the water body. Though the Northeast Frontier Railway bowed to public protests against its plan to lay the track through the core area of the water body, it managed to develop a route, skirting the core area. This track has irreparably fragmented crucial animal corridors linking the wetland to the Rani-Garbhanga Reserve Forest . The beel has shrunk from its original size of 55 sq km to a bare 10 sq km and environmentalists list the alleged offenders: the Azhara railway station shed, a part of the Airport Authorities of India’s staff housing complex, about 15 brick kilns, a nursing home, a woollen mill and many small scale industries.

One of the Action Points contained in The National Wildlife Action Plan 2002-2016 states: “Ministry of Surface Transport and Ministry of Railways to plan roads in such a manner that all national parks and sanctuaries are bypassed and integrity of the protected area is maintained. Wildlife corridors also need to be avoided, or mitigative measures (such as restricting night traffic) need to be employed.”

In November last year, at least seven elephants were mowed down by a passenger train in Upper Assam before the engine derailed. An inter-city passenger train coming from Ledo to Dibrugarh hit a small herd of elephants sitting on the tracks at around 5.15 p.m. leading to the deaths of at least two adult elephants and four calves.

In an earlier incident, an elephant calf was fatally injured in a train accident at Mahananda wildlife sanctuary in West Bengal . The elephant was hit by a goods train while crossing a railway line on the outskirts of the sanctuary in Siliguri, in search of food in the nearby fields.

Forest officials said there are three main migratory herds of elephants, which walk the forests of north Bengal while migrating to and from Assam and Nepal . The railway tracks pass through migratory corridors at 15 places. Since 2000, when locomotives began using the 120-km Siliguri-Alipurduar rail route, there have been 10 elephant deaths. The forest department has no record of injuries to animals in rail accidents.

Elephant deaths due to train hits are not only restricted to the North-East. A pair of elephants was allegedly hit by the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express between Posaita and Manoharpur stations about 120 km. from Jamshedpur , Jharkhand in November, 2001. The elephants subsequently died.

In May 2001, a young cow elephant, around 16 years old was hit by the Mussoorie Express. The accident happened on the rail track running through the Motcihur range of the Rajaji National Park . This was the latest in a series of accidents on this track, which has claimed the lives of elephants, leopards and deer.

The proposal to convert a 282.78 km. railway line from metre gauge to broad gauge on a route from Siliguri in West Bengal to New Bongaigaon in Assam includes 74 km., which passes through forested areas such as the Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jaldapara Forest, Chapramari Forest, Kalimpong Forest Division, Baikanthapur Forest, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and the Jalpaiguri Forest Division. Conversion to broad gauge will mean increased traffic on the route, including fast long-distance trains, which would greatly increase the disturbance and threat to wildlife in the northeast, one of the country’s richest areas in terms of biodiversity. Elephant deaths are not uncommon on the existing line on which only four passenger trains and one goods train currently ply. The laying of the broad-gauge line would also imply felling of trees on either side, further disrupting forest corridors.

A survey conducted in Kaziranga National Park reveals that accidents on roads and railway lines as well as man-elephant conflict resulting from habitat destruction are the main threats to the elephant in these areas.

The initiative by the Wildlife Trust of India to tackle the problem of elephant deaths due to train hits in the Rajaji National Park (RNP) have resulted in a decline in elephant deaths. The broad gauge railway tracks passing through Rajaji connect the capital of the newly formed state with the rest of the country.

“This is again a challenge for us,” Dr Anil Kumar Singh, WTI’s senior field officer posted at Rajaji said. “We are doing a series of interventions to ensure that 2004 too should remain a zero mortality year”. Joint patrolling on the tracks in the summer months was initiated in the night to warn the drivers about animal movement. “This year we have three teams patrolling the tracks in RNPat Raiwala, Kansrao and Motichur with wireless sets. We have also scheduled a workshop with train drivers and guards, who do this stretch, along with the forest guards so that it works as a refresher for them,” Dr Singh said.

“One of the principal findings of the study done by Anil was that animals crossed over for water and got trapped in the high embankments flanking the railway track. Speed was also an issue since trains were tending to hit the animals at blind turns,” Dr P.S.Easa, WTI’s Conservation Director explained. The joint efforts of the forest department, the railways and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) had ensured that 2002 and 2003 remained zero mortality years for elephants in rail accidents in Rajaji National Park . The success of this venture could very well be a model for similar initiatives in other protected areas.

Accidents such as these will however continue to happen until the railways, forest department and the government gear up to initiate mitigative measures on track.