Railways are taking regular measures to keep cattle away from railway track by providing boundary wall/fencing at vulnerable locations. Provision of approximately 1911 km length of boundary wall at vulnerable locations has been identified over Zonal Railways including Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah and other Golden Quadrilateral routes.
Works amounting Rs. 3150 Cr have been sanctioned for construction of boundary wall. As on October, 2019, 121.43 km of boundary wall has been constructed against the target of 210 km for the year 2019-20.
In addition, steps taken by Zonal Railways in coordination with Ministry of Environment and Forest to curb the death of animals while crossing railway track, include the following:
- Imposition of speed restrictions in identified locations.
- Provision of signage board for pre-warning the train crew about animal crossings zones.
- Sensitization of Train Crew and Station Masters on a regular basis.
- Need based clearance of vegetation on the sides of the track within railway land.
- Construction of underpasses and ramps for the movement of wildlife at identified locations.
- Provision of fencing at isolated locations.
- Forest Department staff deputed in Railway control offices to liaison with Railway and elephant trackers engaged by Forest Department for timely action by alerting station master and loco pilots.
- Honey bee sound systems have been installed at locations which are prone to crossing of elephants.
- Counseling of villagers for avoiding cattle coming near track.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
