By IANS,
Lucknow : Four railway officials, including a senior, have been booked under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act for negligence after a tiger was killed by a speeding train in a forest reserve in Uttar Pradesh, an official said Monday.
A passenger train ran over the tiger late Friday night in the Katarniyaghat forest reserve in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district.
“We have booked the railway officials for their negligence that led to the unnatural death of the animal,” said divisional forest officer (DFO) R.K. Singh.
In forest reserves, trains have to follow a speed limit, which was not observed by the passenger train, he added.
Trains passing through forest reserve cannot exceed speed of 30 km per hour.
However, the passenger train was travelling at nearly 80 km per hour, an official said.
According to reports, the animal was dragged under the wheels of the speeding train (194 Down Gonda-Pallia) for several yards, due to which it lost both its hind legs and suffered deep gashes on the body.
Cases under the wildlife act have been registered against Divisional Railway Manager North Eastern Railway (NER), Aashima Singh, station master Chandramani Tiwari and two others.
The Katarniyaghat reserve is home to about 80 tigers.