NEW DELHI: Trains in India are suffering from a lack of punctuality due to cattle-run-over incidents around the year. Alarmed at the number of incidents of cattle run-over, the Indian Railways has started providing the cattle guard with all electric and diesel locomotives for protecting locomotives. The preventive measures have been taken at the zonal level by the railway.
According to an official statement made by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently in the Parliament, as many as 26,180 incidents of cattle run-over were reported during 2022-23 up to January 31 in 2023. Citing data on this, the minister said that 28,727 cattle runover cases were reported in 2021-22 while 19,960 cases were reported in 2020-21.
The minister also informed the Rajya Sabha that 27,057 cases of cattle run-over incidents were reported in 2019-20 causing a huge loss of punctuality to trains.
"In 2019-20, 37,067 trains have suffered with punctuality due to cattle hits while 23,164 trains lost punctuality in 2020-21. In 2021-22, 36,060 trains lost punctuality due to cattle runover. In 2022-23, 35,734 trains lost punctuality due to cattle run-over in Indian Railways,” the minister informed the Rajya Sabha.
He also said that a slew of preventive measures were being carried out to prevent cattle run-over incidents along the railway tracks. The construction of boundary walls and fencing of the railway tracks are among other preventive measures that the railway has started to prevent cattle run-over-like incidents which cause massive loss of punctuality to trains. The villagers are also advised by the railways not to take their cattle for grazing near the railway tracks.
"The railways is also asking the villagers to avoid dumping of food waste along railway tracks to avoid cattle run-over incidents”, the minister said. Apart from all this, the railways has lodged a number of cases against the people whose cattle were found grazing along the railway tracks and many of them were arrested.
“In 2022, 356 under section 147 and 72 under section 154 of the Railway Act cases were lodged. As many as 348 persons under section 147 and 58 under section 154 of the Railway Act were arrested,” the minister informed the House.
According to RTI information, if a passenger train running on diesel stops for a minute, it results in a loss of Rs 20,401. It costs Rs 20,459 in case of an electric train. Similarly, for a diesel-run goods train's one-minute stoppage, railways incur a loss of Rs 13,334 and it is Rs 13,392 for an electric goods train.
According to experts, these are direct losses. Apart from this if a train stops without any reason, it also affects the movement of many other trains due to safety and traffic reasons, which multiplies the losses incurred by the railways.
Furthermore, in such a situation when a train gets delayed, the railways have to refund Rs 100 or 200 on average as part of its TDR policy. This further increases the burden on the railways. According to RTI, incidents of cattle being run over by trains are very common in many parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. In the North-East, even elephants are dying after being hit by trains.
(With inputs from IANS)