Title - Nod to Sikkim rail link poses jumbo threat

A killer stretch of railway track that cuts across a critical wildlife corridor in North Bengal and sees an average of five elephant deaths every year due to train accidents may soon see an increase in traffic.
    The state government has quietly given its nod to the proposed extension of the broad gauge line from Sevoke to Sikkim’s Rangpo that will pass through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and a handful of key elephant-inhabited stretches. The existing rail link from New Jalpaiguri to Sevoke, which passes through a part of the Mahananda, has already seen five elephant deaths this year — on January 5, the Jhajha Express crushed three male and two female jumbos. Almost 40 elephant deaths were reported there between 2004 and 2012. Asection of the state’s wildlife advisory board members, who had sought an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project at the last meeting in February, 2012, have alleged they were kept in the dark as the state forwarded the clearance to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). But the state’s chief wildlife warden, S B Mondal, said the government did not consider the project a threat to wildlife. The Trinamool Congress held the railway ministry when the clearance was given.
    An MoEF source said a three-member standing committee team of National Board of Wildlife will survey the site on Tuesday and Wednesday. If they give their nod, the project will get under way. ‘Biodiversity of Mahananda will be hit’
    The state government gave its approval last year. “We had suggested an environmental impact assessment and a site survey by a neutral agency. The area has turned out to be a killer zone for the elephants. But we didn’t receive the minutes of the meeting,” alleged Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, a board member. His colleagues on the board, Joydip Kundu, Animesh Bose and P K Sen, said they hadn’t even received the minutes of the meeting that cleared the proposal.
    However,
forest department principal secretary Subesh Das said the clearance was sent to Delhi with the resolutions of the last meeting of the board. "The Centre had sought the views of the state wildlife board and we sent it to them,” he said.
    Kundu said: “Giving a green signal to the project will hit the biodiversity of the area. The first line, from New Jalpaiguri to Sevoke, has already triggered several elephant, leopard and bison deaths. The second one will be a disaster.” Bose said that the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) now has a key role to play. “The final clearance by the Centre now depends on NBWL’s site inspection report,” said Bose.