Give in to the Greater Common Good

An open letter to

The Ministry of Railways and The Ministry of Environment

We place before your ministry a humble request to call off the proposed RAILWAY LINE between Chamarajanagar to Sathyamangalam, cutting across the Nilgiris Eastern Ghat Elephant Reserve, part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and proposed Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary. As the government is aware of the facts - about the importance of this area, beaming with natural wealth of fauna and flora that are endemic to this region. All the more this railway line cuts across the vital elephant migratory path from Mayor plateau to Attapadi and Silent Valley this corridor is already disturbed by the roads, hoardings, fencings and other human interventions. This disturbance is very evident in the recent months with the Elephants straying into unheard of places and damaging crops and being threat to human lives to the extant the Coimbatore PCC Mr.Thyagi had pressed in the service of Kumki (trained elephants) to beat the retreat of these elephant herds, back to where the threat to human interest is not at stake, the long term adverse impact of this proposed rail line will be unimaginable, with repeated aggression like this can be heard more so in the future - if the proposed railway lines comes up. Eventually one day the elephant stock in this vicinity will vanish. In the demographic convergence of Western and Eastern Ghats it is important for us to isolate this forest from any human activities, as it is heaven to many endangered species as well, like the black buck, vultures and The Indian giant squirrel to name few. The department Railways and the Ministry of Environment have to take in to the notice of the repeated occurrence of trains running over Elephants and Tigers in various rails sectors that have wildlife habitat in the proximity to name few The Gulma Forest Range in Kolkata, About 11 elephants have been killed in the last two years on the tracks connecting New Alipurduar and New Jalpaiguri. A few days ago, a tiger was run over by a train on the same railway track. Similar incidants have been reported along the 18-kilometre stretch of railway track between Chilla and Motichur that runs through Rajaji National Park and in the Siliguri and Alipurdar sectors. Apart from the man animal conflict the advents of this rail line will open up the forest of spurious wholes to poaching logging - there by the entire ecosystem going haywire. Hence we urge the government to call of this railway line for the greater common good. On the one side we hear efforts taken by the government to conserve the wildlife vis in EDAYURVAYAL more than 50 people have been moved to alternative settlements to facilitate a six-km elephant corridor connecting Kerala's Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and Brahmagiri reserve in neighboring Karnataka. It is assuring that the government will come out in favour of the last few remaining habitats of these humble beings.