The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday said the railway authority and the forest department should work out a standard operating procedure to curb incidents of Asiatic lions being run over by trains, stating it won’t tolerate everyday killing of big cats due to apathy of Railways.
Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal observed that many lions have been killed as they are run over by trains in Gujarat due to the apathy of Railways and that the number of such occurrences should be brought down to zero.
“We are not going to tolerate that you are killing them every day,” CJ Agarwal told the lawyer representing the Indian Railway.
The HC has taken suo motu cognisance of the death of lions on railway tracks.
Expressing displeasure over the reply by the Railway on two lions being run over by a train in January this year, the HC said the railway authority and forest officials will have to “act in coordination and be in sync as to how to save the lions, which are the pride of the country.” The HC stated in its order that the amicus curiae in its report brought to the court’s notice that Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a subsidiary of the Indian Railway, has repeatedly attempted to convert the meter gauge line into broad gauge on different routes in and around Gir Sanctuary, the abode of Asiatic lions.