ROURKELA: A female elephant was critically injured after hit by a speeding train between Sagra and Sonakhan of the Rourkela Forest Division (RFD) in Sundargarh district, about 40 km from Rourkela, on early Thursday morning.
The incident occurred under the Chakradharpur Division of the Howrah-Mumbai main line of the South Eastern Railway (SER).
A local forest officer informed the incident occurred around 5.20 am when the Bhubaneswar-Dhanbad Special Train, moving on the Down line, hit the single female elephant.
The pachyderm was then crossing the track. After being hit, the injured elephant fell on the adjacent up-track. He said senior officers of the Forest Department and local authorities of the SER rushed to the spot and the injured elephant was lifted from the track and taken for treatment.
Regional Chief Conservator of Forest of Rourkela circle, P Ramaswamy, and Rourkela Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Jaswant Sethi, along with DFO of the Bamara Forest Division and veterinary teams, rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation.
Neither the RCCF nor the Rourkela DFO immediately take up calls for comment.
SER sources informed that following the blocking of the up-track trains arriving on that track are getting diverted on the Rourkela-Jharsuguda third line.