HOJAI: Forest department has blamed it all on the Northeast Frontier Railways for the recent incident where five wild jumbos were crushed to death by a speeding train.
Addressing a press conference, District Forest Officer Safikur Rahman said the NF Railways has issued misleading statement since the timing of the incident happended on 10th february when train no. 15611( Silchar bound Guwahati- Silchar fast passenger) passed was 9:32 PM not 9:40 PM.
He said,”the accident happened at a place in between 166/9 to 167/0 KM post, but not at the place between 167/0 to 167/7 KM post as stated in NFR press release.”
The DFO finds another fault with the NFR statement saying that there was no elephant corridor where the incident happened but we deny this fact as it is found contradictory to the press release, as the location in between 166/6 to 170/0 KM post is found specified as elephant corridor in the page No. 30/31 of the book of working time table No. 90 provided by the north east frontier railway.
The train in question was running at a speed of more than 60 KM per hour, thus we deny the fact that a speed restriction of 30 KM per hour had been imposed by the railways for all the trains running through the area as stated in NFR press release. Because the particular train took only 21 minutes to travel approx 20 KM distance from Hojai to the place of occurrence, observed the DFO.
He further said," three levels enquiry are going on Viz., a) by railways, b) magisteriam level, and c) joint enquiry by railways and forest department and case is also registered from the part of forest department to find out the truth and to take action against delinquent official (s) if found."
The incident took place on February 10 when the Silchar-Guwahati passenger rammed into a herd of wild jumbos leaving five dead at night in Habaipur, at a stone’s throw distance from the station triggering protest and anger in the entire area.
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