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Tamil Nadu: Two loco pilots booked after train runs over 3 elephants
On Saturday, the forest department detained the two loco pilots—M T Subair from Kozhikode and M C Akhil from Thrissur.
: The Tamil Nadu forest department said a case was filed against two loco pilots who were booked under Section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act on Saturday in the case of death of three elephants—who were killed by a moving passenger train near the Madikeri range of Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu.
On Saturday, the forest department detained the two loco pilots—M T Subair from Kozhikode and M C Akhil from Thrissur.
After taking their statements and relevant documents, the forest department took an undertaking from the loco pilots that they will appear for questioning, the forest department said and added that the forest department has also sent a team from Coimbatore to Palakkad, Kerala to collect a microchip to collect data on the speed of the train. Members of the loco pilots association in the neighbouring state, Kerala, opposed the move.
“This has become a kind of tension between the two states and the railways department with the forest department,” said principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden Shekar Kumar Niraj.
Niraj said the case has to be booked because it is mandated under the Wildlife Protection Act, and added “We are now judicially moving things. Both departments must work together for short term and long-term measures.”
In reply to a journalist’s tweet, the southern railways said they are cooperating with the forest department.
“Investigation is in progress. At the moment there is no evidence supporting the claim of negligence by the loco pilots. It is being discussed only as a possibility,” the southern railways said.
A postmortem conducted on Saturday had revealed that one of the elephants was pregnant.
On Friday night, a speeding train from Mangalore to Chennai, near the A line between Walayar and Ettimadai, hit and killed three elephants—two female and a male.
