Man-Animal Conflict Continues As Tiger Is Run Over By Train Inside Navegaon-Nagzira Reserve

National Parks and other protected areas like them are created for the sole purpose of conservation, where animals, birds and other species that are facing threats due to human activity can live peacefully in their natural environment.

But, unfortunately, 'development' is making them unsafe even within the protected areas where they are supposed to be safe.

In yet another such tragic incident, a tiger was killed after being run over by a goods train in Maharashtra's Gondia district on Monday morning.

ANI

Gory injuries

¡°The sub-adult tiger was killed by a train heading towards Gondia. His front right leg was found severed but wasn¡¯t found on the spot. It is being searched for with the help of a dog squad. The spinal cord of the tiger was found broken,¡± a press note issued by Deputy Conservator of Forest (Gondia) Kulraj Singh said.

The incident took place around 8 am between Gongli and Hirdamali railway station on Balharshah-Gondia route in the district located in the state's Vidarbha region on a track that passes through the Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR).

Representational Image

According to reports, the sub-adult male tiger, aged around 12-15 months is one of the three cubs of the Tigress officially identified as T14.

This is not the first time animals including tigers have been killed on the tracks in the region.

On March 3, two sloth bears were run over by a passenger train near Gangajhari railway station in Gondia.

The train, which was coming from Howrah, was heading towards Nagpur when the incident took place.

BCCL/ representational image

In 2018, three tiger cubs were crushed by a train in the Junona forest of Chandrapur on the same line.

Despite the increasing number of animal deaths on the same track, activists say the government has failed to act.

In 2013, following a 10-month-old tiger cub getting killed and another getting seriously injured when a speeding train hit them near Kelzar on Gondia-Chanda Fort section, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had asked all the chief wildlife wardens (CWLWs) of tiger range states to take urgent measures for preventing wild animal mortality due to train hits.

BCCL

The NTCA had then suggested several measures including the identification of sensitive stretches along the railway tracks based on ongoing Phase-IV monitoring of wild animals, deploying personnel for sharing information about the presence of wild animals between the forest department and the railways on a day-to-day basis.

But the growing number of deaths on tracks shows that nothing has changed for the wild animals.