Rail pleads not guilty in tiger death

COOCH BEHAR, June 20: Mr Arjun Rakshit, Divisional Railway Manager, Northeast Frontier Railway, Alipurduar Division, today vehemently opposed the idea that the Royal Bengal Tiger that was found dead beside the railway track on Monday was knocked down to death by a speeding train. He welcomed any joint probe into the incident.

The body of the full-grown Royal Bengal Tiger was found with deep wound mark on its face near Dolong Bridge between Ghoksadanga and Falakata on Monday morning. After conducting post-mortem the carcass was burnt on that night at Jaldapara. The forest department has also lodged a complaint with Ghoksadanga police station in Cooch Behar regarding the incident stating that an unknown train pushed the tiger causing its death. The tiger's viscera samples will be sent to the Wild Life Institute of India in Dehra Doon for conducting more tests.

After post-mortem, forest department sources said blood clots, internal haemorrhages and four broken ribs were identified. They believe that the tiger had to die after a brush with a speeding train. State forest minister Mr Ananta Roy too said that they initially suspected that the tiger was run over by a train and after the post-mortem it was confirmed.

The allegations raised by the forest department against the railways prompted the Divisional Railway Manager, Alipurduar, Mr Arjun Rakshit to explain the matter from their viewpoint. He made it clear that the death of the tiger was not caused by any collision with any train. No driver or any other railwayman reported any such incident. "We have no compulsion to suppress such a matter. No train violated the speed control restriction at that specific spot", he said. There were four restricted zones along Siliguri Junction-Alipurduar Junction route to prevent elephant deaths as per recommendations of the concerned expert committee. In the case of the tiger that restriction was not violated because it was not under these zones, he explained.

Mr Rakshit said after a collision the body of the tiger is to be bruised all over, not an injury mark on its face. The head is to be crushed. But, since it was not a case of collision no such things occurred. The forest officials are blaming the railways to somehow pass the responsibility to others, he opined. Terming the incident unfortunate he suggested a joint inquiry into the incident.

The DRM said no one has any idea from where the tiger came from. The forest officials are sure that it died of collision with a train but it is not the responsibility of the railways to restrict speed of a specific train predicting the spot and moment when a tiger comes on the track to be collided. Heavy light and whistling of engines never attracts an animal like tiger to come on the tracks. Not only that, no one heard any roar of any tiger and no report was received of any injury of any human being or any cattle by any wild animal from the area where the body was found. If a tiger comes to vicinity birds and other animals feel its presence. From these it is clear that the cause of death of the tiger was not a train but anything else, Mr Rakshit said.

According to wildlife conservation activists carnivorous animals like Royal Bengal Tiger never comes out of their home range in forests except man-eaters. This time a male full-grown tiger came out for unknown reasons from yet to be ascertained jungle. No railway personnel reported the accident or any villager complained anything about any tiger. These raised some questions : Was any collision with any train ever occurred, was the tiger died at the spot from where it was found, was its body brought in from anywhere to smuggle out to other destination. An intensive inquiry only can reveal the truth behind the death of the big cat. []

Samhati Maidan

COOCH BEHAR, June 20: In a bid to promote and maintain communal harmony a playground named Samhati Maidan was inaugurated at Binpatti under Khagrabari Gram Panchayat in Cooch Behar today. State forests minister Mr Ananta Roy inaugurated the playground. Cooch Behar MP (Rajya Sabha) Mr Tarini Roy, Cooch Behar (North) MLA Mr Dipak Sarkar, CZP sabhadhipati Mr Jnanendra Chandra Chanda, Cooch Behar-II Panchayat Samity sabhapati Mr Dhaneswar Roy, Cooch Behar DM Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha, SP Mr Anil Kumar and Cooch Behar Sadar SDO Mr Jayanta Maity were present on the occasion.

The Samhati Maidan is a three-bigha land and Cooch Behar-II Panchayat Samity developed it at a cost of Rs 11-lakh. Mr Tarini Roy promised that he would bear the cost to erect the boundary wall from his Local Area Development fund. []

Demolition drive

COOCH BEHAR, June 20: Cooch Behar Municipality's demolition drive against unauthorised constructions entered its third day, today. Chairman of the civic body Mr Biren Kundu led the operation in association with senior administrative officials and a large contingent of police. The demolition drive created panic among the hawkers and encroachers in the town. Illegally constructed portions of many buildings and shops were pulled down and many stalls of footpath hawkers were evicted during the drive. The drive may continue for some more days, municipality sources said. []