AR-News: (India) Evidence on camera to save jumbos

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040419/asp/bengal/story_3144582.asp 


The Telegraph


KUHELI CHAKRAVORTY
 
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.




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"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to fore only 
when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test 
(which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those 
who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a 
fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it." 

Milo Kundera 
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