CHAKARDEO, May 1 – The wild elephant is seemingly facing a trying time in the State as its enemies have increased manifold what with the jumbos meeting untimely deaths due to poaching, poisoning, killing by train’s, etc.

Callousness on the part of Railway authority has led to the death of the giants here at Chakardeo under Rani reserve forest. With the setting up of this track, the herd of jumbos coming down to Deepor Beel frequently meet a tragic death at the wheels of the speedy train.

Though speed limit along the track is 25 km per hour, the trains are alleged to run much faster, killing the elephants on their way back to the hill. “Prior intimation about the presence of elephant on the track could save their lives”, a forest official told this correspondent.

Pointing to the tunnel-like track, a source disclosed that there being no space for free movement on either sides of the track, the giants easily fall victim to the killer track.

Local people while interacting with the correspondent have demanded adequate safety measures to avoid further loss of one of the planet’s oldest creatures.

The villagers dependent on agriculture for livelihood are not antagonistic to the elephants despite sustaining heavy loss due to crop damage by the marauding herds.

“Not crop damage but accidental death of elephant pierces our heart,” a septuagenarian woodcutter rued emphasizing on the evolvement of strategy for undisturbed movement of elephant.

Mention may be made that expansion of road network including construction of railway track along the forest periphery have made the matter worse as far as movement of wildlife is concerned.

From 1998 to 2001, while 10 elephants were killed by gunshots, 9 were been killed by trains 17 were electrocuted in the state. Death of elephants due to poisonings during this period was 19.

Alleging dereliction of duty during the night when herds of elephants usually come down to Deepor Beel, a source disclosed that on the night of April 22 when a calf was hit by a goods train around 3-20 am, the patrolling of Railway personnel was reportedly over by 12 am. Proactiveness and coordination both of Railway and Forest personnel is imperative to avert mishap in the near future – local people felt and exhorted that the powerline passing through the hilly terrain should be checked regularly to avoid any untoward incident.

Notably, Rani RF and Gorbhanga RF respectively under Rani and South Guwahati Range reportedly have a sizeable population of pachyderms who bathe in Deepor Beel besides quenching their thirst. But the Railway track on many occasions has proved fatal.

Meanwhile, habitat shrinkage due to mounting pressure on forest produce has considerably affected the movement. Here at Rani RF measuring 4370 hectares felling of timber for the past two decades and the resultant food shortage has triggered exodus of elephants to plain areas.

Crop raiding during the paddy reason has dealt a serious blow to the farming community of vulnerable area such as Chakardeo where most of the cultivators are reported to have stopped paddy cultivation. “The elephants when they discover paddy-starved fields come to our granaries and kitchen garden,” informed the local people who are equally emphatic on restoration of lost forest cover. According to them, predominance of bamboo here in this hilly terrain is now a thing of past. And with farming virtually coming to a halt, the fragmented forest cover would bear the brunt. It is incumbent upon the government to undertake effective conservative measures for the jumbos.

As things stand here at Chakardeo, intensification of night-long patrolling with whole-hearted devotion to the job is imperative.