Rangia/Guwahati, Jan 27 (PTI) An elephant was killed and another was injured when a goods train knocked them near Palasbari in Kamrup district of Assam, prompting the Northeast Frontier Railway to conduct a “detailed enquiry”, officials said on Thursday.
Another elephant was killed due to electrocution at Lanka in Hojai district, officials said.
According to officials of the Palasbari Forest Office, a speeding goods train from Guwahati to New Delhi knocked down the elephants when they were crossing the tracks at Gosaihat Uparpara between Azara and Mirza stations on the Kamakhya-Jogighopa rail line under Rangia Division of the NFR.
While one jumbo was killed on the spot, another was injured in the accident during the early hours of Thursday.
The train dragged the elephant for about 200 metres, the forest official said, adding “the injured elephant entered into the deep forest”.
The railway and forest staff reached the spot after getting intimation of the accident and removed the dead elephant to clear the track.
The dead elephant was buried near the rail line after conducting a post mortem, the Forest Department official said.
The local public urged the railway authority to decrease the speed limit in this area and display a board marking “Elephant Corridor” to save the jumbos as they regularly cross the rail tracks in and around the accident area.
The NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Guneet Kaur said that the area where the incident occurred is not a forest declared elephant corridor and no information from forest officials or villagers on the movement of the elephant in the area was received.
“As a preventive measure, Forest Department and railways have dedicated representatives from both sides at the railway’s divisional 24 hour working control office, but no information regarding movement of elephant was available with the forest official available at control as well.
“After the incident, information was given by railway officials to the Forest Department,” she said in a statement.
Due to the accident, several passenger and goods trains were delayed by many hours and were stopped at different stations, Kaur said.
“After the incident of last night, NF Railway has proactively decided to conduct a detailed enquiry of the incident and has imposed caution during train movement and reassessment of notified elephant corridors are also being taken in coordination with Forest Department,” she added.
In the second incident, a wild elephant was killed at a village near Lanka in Hojai district on Wednesday night.
Forest officials said that a herd of elephants came out of the jungle in search of food and one of them got in contact with high-tension wire passing in the area, killing the animal.