Gujarat High Court rejects Railways' claim that lion deaths from train hits happen while chasing prey

The Gujarat High Court recently pulled up the Railways for its apathy in responding to the frequent deaths of Asiatic Lions in Gir wildlife sanctuary, which were being run over by the trains..A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee refused to accept the contention of the Railways that most Lions die in train accidents while chasing prey."Lions do not run they walk slowly. So how did you come to know that a lion was chasing the prey? Who told you this story? Your driver? This is just an assumption," a visibly enraged Chief Justice remarked.During the hearing which took place on March 26, the bench expressed displeasure over the reply by the Railway on two lions being run over by a train in January this year. It said the Railway and forest officials will have to "act in coordination and be in sync" as to how to save the lions that are the pride of the country. The Court said that the lion being the 'king of the jungle' behaves like a king and kill other animals only when hungry and not otherwise and lions do not engage in long chase of its prey like leopards or tiger. "He is a lion and not a leopard or a tiger. He is a completely different animal. He is the king of the jungle and he behaves like the king. If he is not hungry, he would not look to any other animals. We have seen animals standing at a very short distance from the lion," the Chief Justice said.The bench wondered why a lion would go to the railway track to chase the prey."He is a king he is not killing animals because he is the king. He is protecting his kingdom and eats animals only whenever he is hungry and that is the law of the nature. So Please do not make any story," the Court warned. During the hearing, the counsel for the Railways submitted that the bench must appreciate the fact that the accidents have now reduced."Mr. Counsel, it should be zero. There cannot be any accolades in reducing the number. We have killed many of the lions because of this apathy on the part of the department. We are not going to tolerate that you are killing them everyday. If you are loosing one lion then after how many years you get one? You can't say if one is lost then it is not a big deal," the Chief Justice remarked.The Chief Justice further expressed displeasure over the approach of the lawyers appearing for officials and attempting to defend the approach of the officers."You are not here to defend your officers. You have to bring concrete action before the court as to how you plan to bring down the number to zero," the bench explained..In its order, the bench noted the report submitted by the Amicus Curiae which highlighted the fact that the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), has repeatedly attempted to convert the meter gauge line into broad gauge on different routes in and around the Gir Sanctuary, where these Asiatic lions live. However, such conversion will result in many trains running across the said route, further endangering the lions, the Court noted.It further noted that the report of the Amicus stressed that the railways must consider halting the movement of freight trains from sunset to sunrise as lions are nocturnal animals and are mostly active during the night. "The lions' eyesight is six times more powerful than humans, but sudden light from the train blinds them, ultimately resulting in them being knocked down or crushed. Notably, the fencing on both the sides of the railway tracks are broken at many a places or are removed because of which lions come on to the tracks," the report stated.