PETA pays tribute to Jagjit Singh

Chennai, Oct 10: Animal rights advocacy group, PETA, paid rich tributes to Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, who died at a Mumbai hospital today (Oct 10), recalling his contributions regarding elephants.

Sachin S Bangera, Manager Media and Celebrity Projects, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India, recalled that Singh had taken up the issue of the pachyderms being mowed down by speeding trains in elephant corridors, with the Railway Ministry.

"Jagjit Singh will always be remembered by many for his voice and by PETA, he will also be remembered for using his voice to speak up for elephants needlessly being killed by speeding trains on railway tracks," he said in a statement here.

Singh had written to former Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee calling on her to limit the speed of trains running through elephant corridors and to use speed-detection guns to monitor train speeds.

"Singh€™s plea had followed the deaths of seven elephants killed in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district by a train that was travelling at an excessive speed of approximately 70 kilometres per hour. About 150 elephants have been killed by trains since 1987," he said.

Singh had said in his letter that there was a solution to avoid deaths of elephants in the form of speed detectors, "which PETA has demonstrated," to slow down trains, Bangera recalled.

PTI