MANOJ SINHA
Ramgarh, May 21: A meeting regarding the safety of wild elephants under the chairmanship of Saurabh Chandra, IFS, Forest Divisional Officer, Hazaribagh Eastern Forest Division, along with the officers of Dhanbad Railway was held on Saturday.
On May 6, a sub-adult male tusker died in the Giridih district. A detailed discussion was held in this meeting regarding the deaths and safety of wild elephants for crossing railway tracks in future.
The railway officials were told by the Forest Divisional Officer that the movement of wild elephants continues from evening till early morning (before sunrise) in the forest areas and their surrounding villages. During this, they cross the railway tracks and accidents happen. As a result of this, a wild elephant died on May 6 near Chechaki railway station.
It was agreed by the railway officials present in the meeting for the safety of wild elephants to limit the speed of trains in elephant-affected areas, clean the undesirable bushes growing on the side of the track, play loud horns, and put up hoarding-signage.
Along with this, it was told by the railway officials that in order to ensure the safety of wild elephants, a nodal officer would be appointed by the Dhanbad Railway who would continue to coordinate with the employees of the forest department and maintain the safety of elephants in the railway tracks and surrounding forest areas. After getting information about the variance, he will caution all the personnel associated with the operation of railways as a precaution so that such accidents can be avoided in future.
L.L. Meena, Sr. Divisional Engineer Dhanbad, Sanjeev Kumar, Divisional Electrical Engineer Operation Dhanbad, Akhilesh Pandey, Sr. Divisional Commercial Manager Dhanbad, besides Rahul Meena, IFS, probationary officer, Abhay Kumar Sinha, Assistant Conservator of Forests Bijay Kumar, Forest Area Officer, Daru Forest Park and Suresh Ram, Forest Area Officer, Bagodar Forest Park were present in the meeting.
