Off track: An elephant in a north Bengal forest

Siliguri, April 18: Officials of the World Wide Fund for Nature and Wildlife Protection Society of India today took video footage of the tracks between Sukna and Gulma stations to strengthen their case against the Northeast Frontier Railway.

The Calcutta chapter of WWF had filed a public interest litigation in the high court in 2000, when the railway began laying broad-gauge lines criss-crossing elephant corridors and slicing through wildlife sanctuaries in the region.

The court had formed an advisory committee following the WWF complaint and guidelines were laid down to reduce the impact of the gauge-conversion on wildlife.

The death of the elephant hit by a goods train near Gulma last month prompted the environment group to allege that the railway was violating court orders. The gauge conversion was completed in November. An elephant has been injured and another killed in the past five months. Trains on the earlier metre-gauge tracks were responsible for more than 15 deaths in the past decade

“We will appeal to the court because the railway is flouting the guidelines recommended by the expert panel. We have sent a team to conduct an investigation and get spot video evidence that we can produce when we move court,” state director of WWF S.R. Banerjee said.

“We are here to prepare a report on the extent to which the court orders are being followed,” said Bulbul Ghosh, one of the two members on the visit.

Forest officials of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, through which the tracks pass, arranged for the tour today and what the team saw came as a “shock”.

“The trenches dug along the tracks for the gauge-conversion have not been filled and they are now death traps for unsuspecting animals. The space left on either side of the tracks is not sufficient for such large animals to walk on. Elephants will not be able to cross the tracks fast enough. There was one board cautioning train drivers before entering elephant territory and that, too, worn out,” Ghosh said.