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BLAKE LIVELY ‘OBSESSED’ WITH HER DAUGHTERS >>P4 SMILES AFTER DECADES-LONG FIGHT ENDS IN VICTORY
On Saturday, NE Railways closed the deadly 170-km track passing through Dudhwa that had claimed the lives of over 100 wild animals over two decades
Oliver Fredrick
Saturday came as a big relief for city-based wildlife enthusiast and an able wildlife conservator Kaushalendra Singh. An almost two-decadelong fight to ensure the closure of the colonial-era rail track (170km-long) that passes through Dudhwa National Park, ended in victory, as NE Railways finally closed the track.
The track, which connected Mailani in Lakhimpur district to Nanpara in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, had claimed the lives of over 100 wild animals in last 20 years. “Indeed it’s a huge relief for me. It’s an end of an old legal battle,” said Singh, a wildlife enthusiast, founder trustee of Tiger & Terrain, an acclaimed breeder of pheasants and a ‘shikari’ (hunter) turned conservator.
Meanwhile, the NE Railways, through its chief public relations officer Pankaj Kumar Singh, said, “The old rail route from Nanpara to Mialani via Dudhwa has been closed following the High Court’s order. We have inaugurated an alternative rail route without affecting wildlife in the Dudhwa forest.”
THE BEGINNING
It all began in the 1990s, the year when Singh came in the possession of a letter addressed to his mentor ‘Billy’
Arjan Singh, a hunter-turnedconservator, who was the first to demand the closure of the track passing through Dudhwa. The letter, dated in the 80s, was from the then railway minister Madhavrao Scindia in response to Arjan Singh’s concern about the rail track. In the letter, the then Railway minister had said, he had no issues in re-aligning the railway track outside Dudhwa if the UP Government shared the cost. “That letter, which I got from my ailing mentor, was enough to give me a cause to fight for the issue, which Billy had initially raised,” Singh recollected.
THE LEGAL BATTLE
Soon after, 2016 brought an opportunity for Singh to present the matter before the court. “In 2016, advocate SK Mishra filed a PIL in the high court, raising the issue of the death of lions at a lion safari in Etawah and demanded the constitution of a tiger protection force in Dudhwa. “It was the right time and I moved an application in court, requesting it to allow me as an intervener in the PIL. The court agreed and I became an intervener in the case,” Singh said.
In the years-long proceedings, the turning point came in 2018 when Singh produce the copy of the same letter from the Railway minister, along with a copy of Patna High Court judgement on Valmiki Tiger Reserve that had a similar kind of situation. Patna High Court had ordered the Railways to build structures on the rail track that passes through, so that the wild animals could cross the track without being mowed down by trains.
“Moved by the letter and the judgement copy, the court immediately ordered the secretary and chief secretary UP and the forest department to hold a meeting and decide what can be done about the railway line,” he said. After a series of meetings, the secretary forest gave an affidavit, adding that the train would be discontinued from March 2019 and he may consider a proposal to run a toy train on the track.
“And then eventually the Railways discontinued the train,” he added.
‘SHIKARI’ TURNED CONSERVATOR
Born and brought up in Barabanki, Singh belonged to an illustrious family in which hunting used to be the most favourite leisure time sport. “Our family used to hold a licence for hunting, and at that time, Dudhwa, unfortunately, used to be the designated hunting ground. I remember accompanying my father on hunting trips in the 1950s a couple of times. I was then 7 year old,” said Singh, who strongly believes that he has inherited two things from his family—one was fine hunting skills and the second was love for wildlife. Until 1970, Singh was an ace hunter and used to hold a hunting permit.
After hunting was banned in 1972, he decided to devote whatever little knowledge he had about wild animals for a cause and he turned conservator.
ONE BATTLE WON, WAR STILL ON
Though the closure of the railway line has brought a smile on Singh’s face but he said a lot more needs to be done for conservation. “It was during the proceedings of the track closure that the proposal of running a toy train on the route also came to the fore. It should be ensured that no toy train ply on the route as it will foil the entire purpose of closing the rail route to provide an undisturbed environment to the wild animals.
Besides, he said that there is a lot more to be done for the conservation of Dudhwa National Park which is in bad shape. Singh, who has devoted the rest of his life for the conservation of wildlife in Dudhwa, has authored several articles on the sorry state of affairs of tiger conservation in
UP and has submitted a project for improvement of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve of which many things have already been done. Being the founder trustee of Tiger and Terrain, a member of Tiger Haven Society, a life member of Wild Life Preservation Society, Dehradun and an exmember, Wild Life Advisory Board, Uttaranchal, his word is not taken lightly.