The bench had also suggested use of wireless animal tracking systems to monitor jumbo movements. The court had also said that the speed limit of trains while passing through such corridors should be fixed at 25 kmph.

The railway authorities and the forest department were asked to identify elephant corridors and build trenches and underpasses to prevent deaths on tracks. In 2018, the Uttarakhand high court had issued a slew of directions to protect elephants from being mowed down by trains. In the last two decades, Uttarakhand has recorded 22 elephant deaths on tracks, according to the forest department. The rail line connecting Rudrapur, Kashipur and Ramnagar has elephant corridors in Tanda and Peepal Padav forest range. In an official order on Thursday, the divisional railway manager of the North-Eastern Railway centre in Bareilly said that trains on the Rudrapur-Kashipur railway line should run at a speed of 50 kmph during the day and 30 kmph at night. It was headed from Lalkuan to Ramnagar in Uttarakhand on Wednesday morning when it hit the elephants in the Peepal Padav forest range of Terai East forest division, half a kilometre from Sidcul Halt railway station. The train was running at an estimated 80kmph. The loco pilot of the train that hit the pachyderms has also been booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. Rudrapur: A day after two elephants – an adult female and its calf – were hit by the Agra Fort Express in the Terai Central forest division, railway authorities have issued orders to slow down speed of trains on the route.

Loco booked