It’s shocking that we’re at ten. That’s the number of monitor lizards that have been fatally struck by Indonesia’s high-speed Whoosh train this year.
Most recently, a monitor lizard was hit near KM 86+200 between Padalarang and Karawang on July 24, yielding a 40-minute delay. The impact on life is deeper than just the animals on the tracks; it’s how we’re developing, planning, and even preserving the lives not on the train.
No, They Don’t Know It’s a Track Now
Container lizards aren’t stupid. But they also don’t know their natural environment has been transformed into a 350 km/h express lane. These are territorial animals—they more or less use the same trails for years. So when a railway bisects their old territory, they continue on the trail like nothing has changed.
A graduate student researching wildlife put it simply: “If an animal still has access to the tracks, there is a problem with the level of environmental safety.” And you know what? That makes sense.
Are Monitor Lizards at Risk? Not Per Se, but…….
Never being recorded on a list of officially protected species is not to say we should ignore this potential plight. Monitor lizards are key to function in the environment, by eating rats, removing a variety of carrion (dead animals), kind of the dirty work of nature. With less monitor lizards, it means more mess being left there. And with urban sprawl, pollution and human-animal displacement all limiting lizard numbers in more regions of the world, it’s not a good sign.
The Tech Is Glorious, But Nature Needs To Be Involved
It can be easy to get excited by flashy infrastructure such as high-speed trains. But as one specialist put it, “KCIC can’t just concentrate on the infrastructure/tech. They also need to look at real ecological mitigation strategies.”
This means:
- Proper fences that would properly exclude animals
- Wildlife monitoring protocols (such as motion sensors, drones, even camera traps)
- Collaboration with ecologists to develop crossing places or wildlife corridors / hydro-gaps
Because let’s face it, lizards won’t be checking train schedules.
“Just the One Lizard”
It’s not about one single animal; ten animals in any individual year are really a warning sign, and if we wait too long, that warning sign will turn into a problem—eventually affecting wildlife and human safety. Just imagine the monumental incident if a larger animal finds its way onto the tracks—or even where more and more of these incidents are starting to accumulate and stack up.
However, we should also be cognizant of transparency. If an animal gets struck by a train, we cannot just bury the matter. The community has a right to understand what is happening, and why it is happening.
So, What’s Next?
This is not a plea or advocacy to slow progress rather, it is a reminder that not all progress is progress; if it doesn’t include everything—not speed and efficiency, but sustainability and responsibility—we will have a higher likelihood for continuing incidents.
Sure, let’s build fast and efficiently. Let’s also build sensibly. Because nature didn’t sign a covenant to step aside.
And, if we can’t work on these issues quickly enough, it won’t only be the lizards paying.
