GUWAHATI: A speeding train mowed down an adult elephant and a calf in Assam.
The incident occurred at Lumding division of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Friday night.
The adult elephant was dragged for around 100 meters by the Kanchenjunga Express train. The male calf, which was severely injured in the incident, was being shifted to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation at Kaziranga by a team of forest officials and veterinary doctors but it succumbed to its injuries on the way.
The Lumding division of the NFR has several elephant corridors but official sources said the location of Friday’s incident was not an elephant corridor.
Incidents of elephants getting killed in train hits are very common in Assam. A few years ago, the then Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma had written to NFR authorities for curbs on train speed limits at the elephant corridors but there is no letup in the incidents.
Wildlife activists in the state have appealed to the government to take some urgent measures to avoid the recurrence of the incidents.
The elephants in Assam also get killed in conflicts with human beings. According to government figures, 80 elephants died in conflicts with human beings last year. Some 100 people also died.