29 elephants knocked down by trains in last three years

Replying to a query in Lok Sabha, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the matter of jumbo deaths has been taken with the Railways Ministry and the respective state forest departments to prevent such casualties in the future. "In affected states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, Railways and Forests departments are meeting periodically to evolve and implement more mitigatory measures," he said.

Giving year-wise details, Ramesh said that six jumbos died in 2009 while 8 and 15 respectively died in 2008 and 2007 in the country. Replying to another question, he said the government has set up a task force on Project Elephant for giving detailed recommendations to upgrade the project to bring about a more effective conservation and management regime for wild and captive elephants.

"The task force headed by wildlife expert Mahesh Rangarajan with 11 others will submit its report by May-end," he added. As per the last census done in the year 2007-08, the population of wild elephants across the country is estimated to be between 27669 to 27719.