Guj HC to initiate inquiry into workings of Railways, forest dept over deaths of three lions

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Indian Railways and the state forest department for not conducting a proper inquiry into the deaths of three lions that got run over by trains in January this year, and said it would initiate a high-level inquiry into their workings.

The division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee was hearing a suo motu PIL over the death of Asiatic lions due to unnatural causes and the recent deaths of three lions that got run over by trains.

Gujarat is the only abode for the Asiatic lions.

The court had, in its earlier order, directed the chief conservator of forests, wildlife division, Junagadh, and the divisional railway manager (DRM), Bhavnagar division, Western Railway, to file affidavits highlighting the aspect of inquiry conducted into the incident to ascertain the cause of death on the track and corrective measures taken.

Not satisfied with their reply, the bench wanted to know if an inquiry had been initiated and who had passed the order to conduct the inquiry.

The lawyer representing the Railways failed to come up with a satisfactory answer.

"We are initiating a high-level inquiry into the workings of Railways and the forest department. Don't tell us you were vigilant and did anything prior to March 26, 2024 (when the court suo motu cognisance of the matter). Whatever you and the forest department did are all sketchy," the chief justice told the advocate representing the Indian Railways.

"We are issuing direction to the secretary, Ministry of Railways, and secretary, forest and environment department, Gujarat to constitute a high-level committee to conduct an inquiry as to the cause of the accidents — three accidents which occurred between January 9 and January 21, and fix responsibility on the officers," Justice Agarwal said.

The court said its anxiety and frustration emerged from the fact that three lion deaths had occurred, but nobody was alerted.

Whatever was conducted as a departmental inquiry was a routine matter, it said.

It further said the CCF and DRM, who were in charge of the area, were supposed to call for a report regarding the deaths, look into it, make an inquiry and initiate action.

"This needs the attention of the higher officials," it said.

Recording statements of three employees and sacking an official is not how an inquiry is conducted, the court said.