In the latest update from Uttar Pradesh, a bus driver has been fined a whooping Rs 2.5 lakhs for running over a monkey in the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR).
Drive Escaped After Accident
As per the reports from the forest officials, the after the bus driver hit the monkey, he tried to flee the area but was detained by the officers and the vehicles was also found. The vehicle was released after the owner had paid the fine.
The bus belongs to local transport and operates between Palia and Gola in the Lakhimpur Kheri district. It travels within the area several times a day.
Talking to the media, Range officer Manoj Kashyap said that there is a provision of fine and the accident was reported on a state highway. Since the animal wasn’t under schedule-1, the driver wasn’t arrested and sent to jail. And the fines vary across different vehicles.
Eight Crocodiles Killed In Past 2 Years
Sources suggest that the speed of the bus was at 70kmph on a stretch which is beyond the permitted limit which is 40 kmph. Generally, workers are deployed at check-posts to keep a check on the vehicles that are passing through the forest. They are issued a paper slip at the entry point to the heavy vehicles like trucks and buses.
Drivers are advised to cross the forest within 22 minutes and the speed of the vehicle is thoroughly monitored.
However, in the past two years, a total of eight crocodiles have been killed by over-speeding vehicles in different forests of the Lakhimpur Kheri area. Last year in November, a young tigress was killed in a road accident.
Then in July last year, a Gujarat based tourist bus company was made to pay a fine of Rs 4.5 lakhs as it had killed a deer in the same forest area. In October 2020, a Delhi-based tempo driver was fined for Rs 2 lakhs for killing a monkey.
