Staff Correspondent

Jamal Uddin, a loco master of Cox's Bazar special train was suspended following the death of an elephant hit by a train in Chunati Sanctuary area in ??Cox's Bazar on October 14.

The Bangladesh Railway authorities took the action against the loco master yesterday (October 23) following a request of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan, a ministry press release said today.

As per the adviser’s request, the speed of trains has been instructed to be limited to 20 km/hour to protect wildlife in the sanctuary and national park areas. In addition, a probe body was formed to this end.

The members of the committee are--Divisional Transport Officer (Chittagong) (convener), Divisional Engineer-1 (Chittagong) and Divisional Mechanical Engineer (Chittagong) of Bangladesh Railway.

The committee was asked to submit its report with recommendations within five working days. After receiving the report of the committee, other measures will be taken for conservation of wildlife.

On the other hand, an expert committee has been formed to provide recommendations on elephant conservation and mitigation of human-elephant conflict in the Korean EPZ area in Chattogram and its surrounding areas.

Headed by Deputy Commissioner of Chattogram, the other members of the committee are-Dr. Md Mostafa Firoz, Prof. Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University; Dr Monirul H Khan, Prof. Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University; Representative of IUCN; two representatives of Korean EPZ; Mohammad Abdul Motaleb, Country Coordinator, US Forest Service, Forest Building, Agargaon, Dhaka; ANM Moazzem Hossain, Chairman, Save the Nature of Bangladesh, Dhaka; Rubaiya Ahmed, Bangladesh Animal Welfare Foundation; Muntasir Akash, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Dhaka University; Divisional Forest Officer, Chattogram South Forest Division; and Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Chattogram.