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| Wednesday, 10 November 2004 |
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by Florence Wickramage The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) will strictly enforce legal action against drivers and assistants of speeding trains which cause the death of wild elephants crossing railway tracks, Deputy Director of the Elephant Conservation Unit of the DWLC Edmond Wilson told the Daily News yesterday. This latest decision of the DWLC comes in the wake of the death of another wild elephant yesterday morning by the Anuradhapura express train between the 97th and the 98th mile posts between Galgamuwa and Ambanpola. The number of wild elephants dying in railway accidents has been increasing daily. Several weeks ago an elephant family - father, mother and baby - known as the "Thunpath Raana" died after being knocked down by a train. DWLC Director General Dayananda Kariyawasam said a series of awareness programs had been conducted for drivers and assistants of the Railway Department regarding elephant corridors and elephant movements across railway tracks. Kariyawasam said the DWLC has intensified programs to protect the country's wild elephant population. Large billboards depicting `elephant crossings and elephant corridors' have been erected along certain places along railway lines and especially the Anuradhapura track. Anuradhapura is one district which can boast of a large elephant population and elephant crossings between corridors are frequent. The Director General further stated that most of the wild elephant deaths are the result of wilful negligence of railway drivers and the DWLC is compelled to initiate strict legal action against these offenders. Already the DWLC has filed two cases in Courts against such drivers whose negligence had led to the death of pachyderms on railway tracks. |
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