Bengaluru, Mar 21: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state forest department to submit a reply regarding a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to limit the speed of trains on the Hospet-Vasco and Londa-Miraj routes during night time as it passes through dense forests of the Western Ghats.

The PIL filed by petitioner Giridhar Kulkarni came up for hearing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi.

The court directed the Deputy Conservator of Forest, Belagavi, Haliyal and Dharwad divisions and the Director of the Kali Tiger Reserve to file their replies within two weeks.

The Union government has already filed its statement of objections claiming periodic meeting between railway officials and the forest department officials is being held.

The petition claims that despite directions by the Supreme Court to reduce the speed of trains passing through forests during night to avoid accidents involving wildlife, the trains on these routes continue to operate at high speed.

The petition claims that since 2014, deaths of 60 wild animals including two elephants, 49 Gaurs, five Sambar deer, one sloth bear, one wild dog, one wild pig and one deer, apart from reptiles and amphibians have been reported from these two railway lines.

"Failure of Railways to take necessary steps to avoid accidents of wild animals with trans despite several requests made, is in violation of precautionary principle and the principles of integrated equity and sustainable development upheld by the apex court in many cases," the petition stated, adding representations given to authorities over these issues have been ignored.

The petition also sought directions to the authorities to construct an alternate railway line between Belagavi and Dharwad, while abandoning these two existing lines.

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New Delhi (PTI): Reliance Industries Limited and five others have approached the Controller General of Patents Design and Trade Marks for the registration of term "Operation Sindoor".

In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes early Wednesday on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base Muridke.

The military strikes were carried out under "Operation Sindoor" two weeks after the massacre of 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.

RIL was first to file the trademark application for the term under trademark Class 41 which covers services like education and entertainment.

According to the details available on the website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, RIL and five others have so far moved applications seeking trademark registration.

Besides RIL, other applicants -- Mukesh Chetram Agrawal, Group Captain (retired) Kamal Singh Oberh, Alok Kothari, Jayaraj T and Uttam -- have also sought registering the term.