nagpur the running over of an adult indian gaur on the tracks near mamla forest on ballarshahchanda fortgondia route on thursday has once again brought into focus lack of wildlife mitigation measures taken by the south east central railway secr in the forested patches a gaur was killed in the fdcm forest area along the tracks on thursday morning the death dance on this section continues regularly but neither the secr nor the state forest department is strongly pursuing the matter with the railway board on mitigation stepsthe number of such wildlife deaths is frightening as per information sought under the rti act by green activist shrikant deshpande the nagpur division of secr has admitted that 130 wild animals including tigers leopards sloth bears gaurs wild dogs nilgais deer wild boars have been killed from 2001 till october 2021deshpande says the figure is just the tip of the iceberg as many deaths of birds reptiles and other small mammals go unrecorded besides there is distortion in figures given by the secr as the number doesnt include three sloth bears mother cubs that were run over near kelzar on july 13 2017the secr has also not given the breakup of the 130 deaths though it claimed that from 2016 till september 2021 4 years and 9 months 49 wild animals including five tigers died in train accidents it also doesnt make mention of a oneyearold tigers death on march 8 2021 there is a mismatch and the number of deaths may well be beyond 500 he saiddeshpande adds while the secr at least supplied rti information the forest department is still sitting over my application submitted in november 2021 indicating how serious it is on the issue only high court intervention can salvage the situation nowkishor rithe a state wildlife board member who is also on the swbl subcommittee of experts and user agencies implementing linear projects said the committee in its meetings always insisted on the secr to restrict speed in forested patches but the zone has failed to implement it we had asked the secr representative to inform the railway board about the committee decision but to no availdeshpande says the railways is at fault as per the rti reply the average speed of the trains is still 665kmph and apart from goods trains at least four pairs eight trains operate on this route of the 250km route 75km passes through dense forest patches between nagbhidchanda fort and 15km between gondianagbhid most of the tracks through the forest fall in the ecosensitive zones esz of tadobaandhari tiger reserve tatr and navegaonnagzira tiger reserve nntr hence mitigation steps are a must after the death of 3 tiger cubs on november 15 2018 in junona area by a speeding train then chandrapur chief conservator of forests ccf sv ramarao had ordered survey on mitigation steps to be suggested to secr and accordingly has recommended a fivepronged strategy says state wildlife board member bandu dhotrewe identified at least 19 railway poles