UDALGURI

The 185-km railway track from Siliguri to Alipurduar has taken the lives of 18 pachyderms in the past few years. An expert committee has now suggested that the situation should be improved by introducing a speed limit and educating train drivers to look out for "danger signs", which include elephants. Unfortunately, this track falls on the much preferred elephant corridor and despite patrolling by forest staff and efforts to make a detour for these elephants, they continue to use it.

: Sri Lanka Tourism in its efforts to promote ecotourism in the country yesterday joined hands with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources releasing 8 baby elephants to the wild. The baby elephants who were orphans and brought up at the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe was released to Udawalawe National Park which is estimated to have 400 wild elephants.

Responding to the crisis, Ajjinanda Poovaiah, an activist of the NGO, Wildlife first, filed a well-researched complaint before the Karnataka Lokayukta (state ombudsman) in February 2003, alleging official corruption and mismanagement under the project.

The state unit of All India Youth Federation (AIYF) has alleged widespread irregularities in the various projects of the forest department. The Joint Secretary of the AIYF state unit, Subhash Dutta, said that there were numerous instances of misappropriation of funds by the department. He made the claim after receiving the details applied for under the Right to Information Act 2005.

HOJAI

Brutality, man-made disasters cause regular elephant deaths With their habitat shrinking fast, elephants are regularly falling prey to human brutality and man-made disasters. The last few days have been especially tragic for these gentle beasts. After the shooting down of a tusker in Ranipur Jhal area of Hardwar district last Thursday, an elephant and her one-year-old calf were electrocuted near Dimna lake near Jamshedpur on Monday while the decomposed body of another pachyderm was discovered at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand.

The elephant of the Samayapuram Mariamman temple will be handed over to the Forest Department. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department has issued an order to shift the pachyderm immediately. The 19-year old male elephant, Mariappan, has often been turning restive for the past couple of years causing anxiety to temple officials and devotees. Officials have arrived at the decision in consultation with veterinary experts from the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and local veterinary assistants.

An elephant and her one-year-old calf were electrocuted near Dimna lake near here on Monday. The incident occurred when the calf, which was walking ahead of its mother, came in contact with a hanging live wire near the lake. The mother elephant rushed to rescue her child and too came in contact with the wire, divisional forest officer (Dalma wildlife sanctuary), Sidharth Tripathy said, adding both elephants were killed on the spot.