Elephant run over by train

One more unfortunate incident, in which a male elephant was killed by the train..

Elephant run over by train
PTI | Dec 18, 2011, 10.32PM IST

JORHAT: A male wild elephant was killed and another injured when a goods train ran over them in Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in upper Assam's Jorhat district tonight, forest department sources said.

A herd of over 20 jumbos was crossing the railway tracks by the side of the sanctuary when a goods train towards Tinsukia ran over the elephants killing one of them on the spot around 7 pm. Forest officials from Melang reserve forest division, under which the sanctuary falls near Moriani, rushed to the site to take stock of the situation and provided medical attention to the injured pachyderm, sources said.

Being an elephant corridor the jumbos regularly cross the railway tracks there, but today they were caught unawares as an unscheduled train crossed the area at that time, they said.

This news report raises an important point, that elephants were caught unaware about the unscheduled run of the train and got hit. I have seen this many times that elephants and tigers can understand the periodicity of safari vehicles and other public vehicles and schedule their timings accordingly.

This news report also doesn't talk about any action taken by the forest department. Wish the forest department and railways understand the importance of our National Heritage Animal.

Sabyasachi