A video that went viral on the internet recently showed Eight buffaloes walking on railway tracks around 1.15 pm on March 7 when the speeding Jaipur-Bandra Express killed them. Though, the train driver kept on honking continuously to warn the buffaloes, he couldn’t stop the train, thus cutting down the eight buffaloes.
Reportedly the train was halted on the spot till the carcasses of the animals were removed by fire brigade officials. This was a major mishap of animals by train in recent time and according to Western Railway official though it was sad, there was no option to stop mishap.
There was an inconvenience for the long route passengers who were travelling between Virar to Dahanu in the evening due to the accident.
“Train was in speed and buffaloes were on track, so there was no option, GRP and RPF looking into it. Don’t know whether the owner has come out for compensation for this,” said the Western Railways spokesperson while talking to InUth.
In the video shot by the commuters, you can hear the voices of passengers who were shouting at the buffaloes to move out of track but the mishap couldn’t be avoided.
However, what’s shocking is that this is not new for the railways. A report by the Elephant Task Force, commissioned by the Ministry of Environment, revealed that almost 150 elephants were crushed to death by speeding trains between 1987 and 2010. It is also estimated that in the past one decade, over 100 elephants lost their lives in train collisions.
Ironically, a cute little elephant calf named Bholu is the mascot of Indian Railways and our country’s economy is often referred to as the ‘Elephant’, implying a slow, yet powerful economy. Also, the point to note is that Elephant has been declared as the national heritage animal of our country, which serves as an abode to Asiatic elephants.
Isn’t it high time that the government does something to avoid such mishaps and ensure animals’ safety?
With inputs from Zainab Ahmed
