PIL in SC seeks direction to prevent elephant deaths

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre and certain states, including Karnataka, to take steps to prevent the incidents of elephant deaths on railways tracks.

The petition filed by Shakti Prasad Nayak has contended that as trains accounted for 37 per cent of  the elephant deaths, immediate steps are required to stop the killing of pachyderms in the country.

“The total death toll of elephants due to collision with speeding train has touched 10 in the year 2012. On an average 8 to 10 elephants die each year in train accidents.

Elephant deaths in railway accidents have been reported from all elephant range states in India, with more than 110 train-hit deaths recorded since 1987,” it pointed out.

A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra is to take up the petition for hearing on Monday. The petition filed by Nayak, a journalist, also cited the latest CAG report 2011-12 expressing concerns over the issue of a large number of wild species were being killed due to accidents in railway tracks.

“Elephant deaths due to an accident caused by trains could be prevented by the prior determination of the position of the elephants from a distance by the use of thermal infrared cameras that can be fitted to the engine. The elephant's body emits Infrared radiation and that can be caught by the camera. This will help the train driver to take precautionary measures with enough time at his disposal for the image to be obtained at a point that is way behind the elephant's position,” it said.

The increasing number of deaths of elephants on railway tracks was anti-thesis of Article 48-A and 51-A (g) of the Constitution and provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the Indian Forest Act, the Indian Penal Code, the Forest Conservation Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1986, the petition said.