With the shrinking forest cover in Assam, the man-elephant conflict took a turn for the worse when six elephants were mowed down by a speeding train, in Assam’s Sonitpur district early on Sunday.
According to local residents, the incident happened around 2am on Sunday when a herd of about 30 pachyderms tried to cross a railway track by breaking down the barrier at a level crossing as the Guwahati-Naharlagun Express, bound for Arunachal Pradesh, was approaching. By that time, the train was already near the area and it was impossible to stop it.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) officials said that the incident happened at the 135km marker between Balipara and Dhalaibeel stations in northern Assam. “The notified elephant corridors are at 131km and 144km. So the accident happened at a non-notified area,” officials said.
Following the incident, the NFR imposed severe speed restrictions in the area.
The Assam Environmental NGOs Forum expressed profound grief at the incident and lamented the casual attitude of the government while planning development activities.
In Assam, 40 elephants have died unnaturally in the past three months. On November 19, two elephants were killed after being hit by a speeding train at Thakurkuchi Railway Station close to Guwahati.
Several wildlife NGOs lamented the fact that such incidents were becoming a recurring phenomena in Assam. They demanded the immediate intervention of the Assam government to stop such tragedies on the tracks and requested the Assam forest department and the NFR install bright lights on the tracks and warning systems and enforce speed limits immediately.
They also advised the Railways to keep open areas on both sides of the tracks free of grass and vegetation, so that the elephants do not come to feed near the tracks.
The dead elephants were cremated after wildlife veterinarians conducted post-mortems.
