By IANS,
New Delhi : The environment ministry Thursday ordered round the clock electronic surveillance of tiger movements near railway tracks after a tiger cub was killed and another severely injured by a train near Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan Thursday convened a meeting of senior officials from Railway Board and her ministry to discuss safeguards for preventing tiger deaths due to train hits.
Experts reviewed the country level status on tiger deaths due to train hits, besides the on-going tiger monitoring protocol adopted in the field.
“It was agreed upon to facilitate e-surveillance of tiger movement using 24X7, intelligent, thermal cameras at sensitive points (near railway tracks),” said an official statement.
Besides, the experts called for identification of sensitive habitats in the Gondia-Chandrapur railway sector near Tadoba Tiger Reserve.
“Putting in place a system for sharing of tiger spatial use data in advance between forest department and the railways through wireless on a day to day basis was also agreed upon,” it said.
The railways has been asked to restrict the speed limit of trains to 40 km per hour in the near the Gonda-Chandrapur sector, where accident took place Monday.