Three tiger cubs run over by train in Maharashtra

Three six-month old tiger cubs were run over by a train in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district on Thursday, highlighting the challenges facing conservation authorities in so-called tiger corridors criss-crossed by road and rail networks.

According to forest officers, the incident took place at around 7.15am near Junona village between Chandrapur and Nagbhid stations, about 4km away from the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in the forest zone falling under the jurisdiction of the state-run Forest Department Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. (FDCM).

The Balharshah-Gondia passenger train ran over and killed the cubs — a male, female and another whose body was so mangled that its sex could not be determined — all from the same litter.

“At first we found two cubs very close to each other closer to Lohara village on Thursday morning but after a detailed survey of the area, we found a third cub almost 350 metres away later in the afternoon,” said AL Sonkusare, divisional forest officer (territorial), Chandrapur.

“The territorial wing of the forest department will be writing to the railways taking this incident as a case study to ensure speed of all trains is reduced...”

Train speeds have been reduced in some important elephant corridors across India following incidents of elephants being killed by passing trains. Although the number of such accidents has decreased, most recently, in April, four elephants were killed in an elephant corridor in Jharsuguda district of Odisha when they were knocked down by a speeding train.

The killing of the cubs takes the toll of tiger deaths in Maharashtra to 16 this year, according to Delhi- based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), and 15, according to Maharashtra forest department records from January 1 to November 15. Between 2014 and 2017, 71 animals were killed due to rail accidents in the state.

Rishikesh Ranjan, general manager, FDCM, said the region from Tadoba to Kanhargaon to Tipeshwar forms an important tiger corridor with 35 big cats regularly moving in this area, also called the ‘tiger superhighway’.

FDCM too will be reaching out the railways, demanding additional mitigation measures for such accidents. “While there are three underpasses in this region they are proving insufficient. We will demand more underpasses and a mechanism to deter animals from approaching the tracks,” he said.

“On the one hand, we have a mother who lost three cubs in one go, and on the other the forest department is trying to tranquillise two cubs in Yavatmal. We need more focused efforts to protect the species,” said Nitin Desai, director, central India, WPSI.