Wildlife Trust of India
June 17, 2008
Rajaji NP (Uttarakhand), June 17, 2008: Recommendations of a Wildlife Trust of India-International Fund for Animal Welfare study done in 2001 have ensured zero elephant deaths in train accidents on a railway track that crosses the forests of the Rajaji National Park in the northern Indian Uttarakhand state.
The railway line, which joins the holy city of Haridwar on the foothills of the Himalayas to the busy capital of the Uttarakhand state, Dehradun, had seen 20 elephant deaths, including those of tuskers and pregnant females, between 1987 and March 2002.
The report and the subsequent efforts by WTI-IFAW catalysed the Uttaranchal Forest Department and the Indian Railways to set up a coordination body that implemented the recommendations to ensure zero elephant deaths on this track since 2002.
The study was initiated after a particularly gruesome accident on the railway track in early 2001. The Rapid Action Project study found that several natural and man-made factors were forcing the elephants to cross the tracks, or trapping them in between.
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