Railways least bothered about Jumbo death: Union Environment Minister

BHUBANESWAR: The Railway Ministry is least bothered about the death of six jumbos due to train accident at Subalaya village of Ganjam district in the State, said Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan in a letter to the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

Natarajan expressed grave concern about the death of the heritage animal in Odisha and West Bengal recently. “The death of six elephants in Ganjam could have been saved by reducing the speed of the express train,” she stated in the latter, adding, “The complaint which has been registered against the train driver and DRM would be taken to the final mode.”

In her letter, Natarajan said that the wild animals were mowed down by the speeding trains many a times, but the railways don’t take any concrete steps to stop the problem. She requested the Railway Minister to take necessary steps to reduce the speed at the sensitive zones where wild animals freely move.

Notably, Natarajan on Sunday chaired an urgent meeting of a Coordination Committee of officials from the Railway Ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests regarding the death of elephants in West Bengal and Odisha. She reviewed the recent deaths of elephants due to collision with speeding trains in the two neighbouring States where she emphasised the urgent imperative to prevent such terrible accidents from happening in the future.