Representative image showing a lion.
Credit: iStock Photo
Ahmedabad: Two Asiatic lions were saved after loco pilots of a goods train were alerted by forest trackers in Amreli district early Monday morning.
The officials said the lions were spotted on the railway track between Pipavav and Rajula section at around 5:30 AM.
In a press release, officials of Bhavnagar division of Western Railway stated that forest trackers Bharat and Bhola spotted the lions on the track and flashed the red light, signalling the loco pilots to stop the train.
The loco pilots, Vivek Varma and Rahul Solanki, applied the emergency brake and stopped the train. The railway has brought down the speed limit to 30 km in the night on this stretch while forest officers have deployed trackers to alert the loco pilots.
Quoting Bhavnagar division's senior division commercial manager (DCM) Mashuk Ahmed, the release stated that continuous vigilance has saved the lives of 44 lions who had wandered onto the railway track during this financial year.
According to reports, nearly half-a-dozen lions have been killed after being hit by trains. Recently on July 25, a male lion, aged about ten years, died after it was hit by a passenger train.
The Gujarat high court has taken suo motu cognisance of these incidents and have instructed the concerned departments to take appropriate decisions to stop such accidents.