Timely motion of two loco pilots saved the lives of a dozen elephants together with calves in Jharkhand’s Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).
The Howrah-Jabalpur Shaktipunj Express was certain for West Bengal by dense forest at PTR at round 6 pm on Friday at a velocity of about 70 kmph when locomotive pilots instantly caught a herd of elephants on the tracks between Chipdohar and Hehegra railway stations. Crossing it, he mentioned.
Assistant loco pilot Rajinikanth Choubey advised the information company, “Loco pilot AK Vidyarthi and I quickly pulled the emergency brake and the train came to a halt at a distance of about 60 meters from the swarm.” PTI,
“We felt a sense of satisfaction after saving the lives of at least 12 elephants,” he mentioned.
Choubey mentioned there was no velocity restrict on the half the place the incident occurred, however the velocity restrict was 25 kmph after the ‘causation line’ 500 meters away.
A PTR official mentioned the prevailing double-line passes by a distance of 11 km between Chhipdohar and Hehegra within the core space of the reserve.
Spread over an space of 1,129.93 sq km, this reserve has 47 species of mammals and 174 species of birds. There are about 250 elephants within the reserve.
PTR’s area director Kumar Ashutosh mentioned, ‘We thank the loco pilots for saving the lives of 12 elephants. He mentioned that as a result of steady motion of trains by the dense forest, there’s a risk to the wildlife within the reserve.
“Many elephants were killed in the past in this section. I would urge other loco pilots to be vigilant like Choubey and Vidyarthi,” he mentioned.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
