The Railway Board and the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a joint general advisory in 2010 to prevent elephants, wild animals, and cattle from being run over by trains. In this series, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was made for the protection of the Asiatic Lion of Gir Forest of Gujarat.

However, after a decade, the Railways have not been able to implement measures to save lions, elephants, cattle, and other wild animals. In just three years, four lions, 73 elephants, and more than 63,000 wild animals and cattle have been killed by the train.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has made the above observation in its report presented in the winter session of Parliament.

The CAG said that the status of animal deaths in train accidents during 2017-18 to 2020-21 was examined. A joint general advisory was issued by the Ministry of Railways and Environment.

Cleaning of vegetation along the railway track, construction of an underpass and overpass for elephants to cross the track, train speed restriction, fencing, indicator boards for pre-monitoring of train drivers, the appointment of elephant trackers, the Forest Department in Railway Control Offices. Deputation of staff and awareness programmes to drivers, guards, station masters, etc. were to be implemented.

The CAG said that even after a decade, the Railways could not implement important measures like the provision of indicator boards, construction of underpasses-overpasses, fencing, a deputation of forest personnel, etc. in many sections. SOP was not followed for the protection of the Asiatic Lions of Gir Forest. Monitoring towers could not be installed due to the neglect of the Forest Department and Railways.

No initiative was taken to install CCTV, an early warning system. The department did not conduct a joint site test. Due to this, four lions were killed in three years. While 73 elephants and 63,345 wild animals, and cattle were killed. The CAG has suggested timely and quick implementation of measures to save lions, elephants, and other wild animals.

Joint inspections conducted in 102 sections across 18 divisions on nine ZRs by officials of the Audit Department and Engineering Department of ZRs show that there is a 76 percent shortfall in the construction of underpasses and ramps for the movement of elephants at identified locations, 41 percent shortfall in fencing at isolated locations, and 64 percent shortfall in the deployment of forest department staff in railway control offices.

“It can be seen that the important precautionary measures related to the provision of signage boards, construction of underpasses, provision of fencing, and deputation of forest staff in divisional offices had not been implemented in many sections, even after a lapse of more than 10 years period from the issue of Joint General Advisories by Ministry of Environment & Forests, and MoR,” the report said.

“During the joint inspections conducted by Audit with the Railway Engineers, sufficient signages, fencing, and watch towers were not provided at vulnerable locations. This implies that action towards the safety of Asiatic lions was lacking on the part of the railway administration,” it said.

Recommendations were made to stop the death of animals on 102 divisions of Railways. Number of Recommendations Division Measures Not applicable Percentage.