New Delhi: Over 1 lakh incidents of cattle being run over by trains have taken place from 2010-2020 to 2022-2023 ( as on January 23), Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Sharing the information in a written reply, the Minister further stated as many as 1,32,025 trains ran late due to cattle run-over incidents.
According to the statistics shared by the Railway Minister, the highest number of calls run over incidents during the said period took place in 2021-2022 which recorded 28,727 such incidents followed by 2019-2020 (27057), 2022-2023 (26,180) and 2020-2021 (19960).
The highest number of trains were delayed due to cattle run-over incidents in 2019-2020 (37067), followed by 2021-2022 (36060), 2022-2023 (35734) and 2020-2021(23164).
"All electric and diesel locomotives are provided with cattle guard for protecting locomotives from the cattle hits. Hence, the quantum of financial loss i.e. amount spent on related damage/repair of such incidents is nominal," stated the Minister.
Asked about the losses sustained by the Railways because of cattle run-over incidents the Minister said that due to the use of cattle guards in all-electric and diesel locomotives, the financial loss has been minimal.
"All electric and diesel locomotives are provided with cattle guards for protecting locomotives from the cattle hits. Hence, the quantum of financial loss i.e. amount spent on related damage/repair of such incidents is nominal," stated the Minister.
He further stated that from 2019 to 2022, a total of 812 cases has been registered under Section 154 and 147 of the Railway Act, of 1989. The Minister said that during the same time period, 791 persons were arrested under Section 157 of the Act while 143 persons have been arrested under section 154 of the same Act.
