Animal rights advocates and now the Sami Parliament (Sametinget) in Northern Norway are demanding construction of fences along Norway’s northernmost train line, Nordlandsbanen, to help keep both wildlife and herds of reindeer off the tracks.
Hundreds of reindeer, moose and deer are killed every year in bloody collisions between the animals and the trains. Locomotive engineers recently won the right to have rifles on board, so they could put injured animals out of their misery if they weren’t killed on impact in a collision.
Now sami reindeer herders in the area, and their political representatives in the Sami Parliament want the state to install fences along the tracks. “Construction of fences along the most vulnerable stretches of track must start this summer and be a priority in the next state budget,” Ellinor Marita Jåma of the Sami Parliament told news bureau NTB.
The demands have been sent to Transport Minister Magnhld Meltveit Kleppa and Agriculture Minister Lars Peder Brekk, both from the Center Party, and to officials at state railroad Jernbaneverket.
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