Ahmedabad, Gujarat:
In his reply to Rajya Sabha member Parimal Nathwani, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said that four lions, including cubs, died after being run over by trains passing through Gir Forest in Gujarat in 2014.
In a release issued in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Mr Nathwani said he was concerned about recurring deaths of lions and lion cubs on railway tracks in and around Gir forest.
The release stated that Mr Nathwani raised the question in Parliament recently on what the government did to protect these rare animals.
In his reply to Mr Nathwani, Mr Sinha said no lion died on railway tracks in 2011 and 2013, while in 2012, one such incident had taken place.
However, the minister admitted that four deaths of lions were registered in the current year until June on the railway line passing outside the notified area of Gir forest.
As per the release issued by Mr Nathwani, the minister also added that no such incident took place on the metre gauge line from Visavadar to Talala junction passing through notified Gir forest.
"The minister informed that measures like restricting speed of trains to 30 km per hour, cautious driving in the forest area and no train movements during night time were the steps taken to protect the animals," the release said.
Mr Sinha said that to protect lions from dying on the broad gauge line, the railways had increased co-ordination with the forest department to inform railway locomotive drives about movements of lions in these areas, the release said.