Title - It’s blame game as usual

The Forest Department and the East Coast Railway have started blaming each other for the death of six wild elephants by the Coromandel Express between Rambha and Huma stations in Berhampur forest division of Ganjam district in the wee hours of Sunday.Forest officials alleged that lack of seriousness of the railway authorities led to the accident. The East Coast Railway authorities came up with counter allegation that they had not been informed well ahead regarding the possibility of wild elephants crossing the railway track in the area.Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer S.S. Mishra alleged that railway authorities were never serious about cautions passed on to the railway authorities regarding movement of elephants. “On Sunday afternoon I contacted the railway control room at Khurda Road about possibility of two wild elephants crossing the railway track between Rambha and Huma railway stations. But I found that the control room was not that serious about the information,” Mr. Mishra alleged.The railway department itself had put up display boards saying ‘elephant crossing zone’ between Rambha and Huma railway stations. As per the Berhampur DFO, they had suggested the East Coast Railway authorities to add ‘drive slow’ directive on these boards. But ‘drive slow’ was not mentioned on the boards. “Without the ‘drive slow’ directive, these caution bards regarding elephant crossing zone had no meaning for the train drivers like that of the Coromandel Express which passed through the area at high speed of 115 to 120 km per hour causing the accident that killed the elephants,” Mr. Mishra said.

Speaking to The Hindu , Chief Wildlife Warden J.D. Sharma said: “In a recently held meeting, both wildlife department and East Coast Railway had decided to follow mutually agreed guidelines to prevent death of elephants in train accidents. Accordingly, they provided a telephone number for contact in the time of emergency.”

According to him, in the wee hours of Sunday, the forest department informed railway authorities about elephant movement on this stretch of railway track around 15 minutes before the accident time. “But the person concerned of railways, however, directed us to contact Rambha railway station. We lost very valuable time in coming in contact with field-level railway personnel at Rambha. Had the message been communicated through railway channel, the delivery of message would have been quicker and precious elephants could have been saved,” Mr. Sharma said.

Mr. Sharma said that the railway authorities knew that the area was frequented by elephants, despite that speed of train had not been reduced. Blaming the railway department further, Mr. Sharma said, “It was a very costly lapse on part of railways.”

The railway authorities also had their own version of reason behind the accident in which they blamed the forest department for not informing them in time. As per a release of the East Coast Railway, after receiving information regarding elephant movement between Rambha and Huma stations, action was taken by the East Coast Railway, but by the time, the accident occurred. They pointed out that without getting information well ahead it was hard to take proper action.