Elephant deaths: Sonowal asks Forest, NFR to improve coordination

Expressing concern over increasing elephant deaths on railway tracks in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday directed the state Forest Department and Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to improve coordination to avoid similar incidents.

Meeting Forest and NFR officials, he advocated a strategy to tackle rising number of such incidents, and favoured joint monitoring of railway tracks on daily basis. He also instructed the Forest Department to adopt an aggressive approach.

The Chief Minister's directive came after three elephants, including a pregnant female and a calf, were killed by a speeding railway engine at Potiapam near Kampur on Saturday night. This was the third such incident that have taken place in the state this month after at Nagaon and Goalpara districts which had left a total of five jumbos dead.

The Chief Minister also ordered immediate setting up local level Monitoring Committee involving people living in adjoining areas of the tracks in all the 29 elephant corridors with a view to share real time information with the Railway Control Rooms, where Forest Department officials would also be deputed.

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