Click to play videoJalpaiguri: An entire herd of elephants was knocked down by a speeding train in North Bengal. This is the latest incident along a railway line that has become notorious as ‘the killer track’ because of a spate of elephant deaths on this stretch.
Seven elephants mowed to death by a speeding train in North Bengal. The herd of elephants was crossing from one part of the forest to another when two young elephants got trapped on the tracks. When other elephants came to their rescue, a speeding goods train hit them, killing five elephants on the spot and the rest succumbed to injuries. This along a railway track that has become notorious for the pachyderm deaths it causes every month.
“It’s a recurrence, it happened last year, the year before that,” said Ravi Singh.
And Jalpagirui is not the only part of the country where elephants have been crushed to death by speeding steel engines. On September 2007, two elephants were killed in Keonjhar. The calf, however, survived. On July 2007, one elephant was killed in Mahananda in West Bengal. And in September 2008, three elephants were run over in Tamil Nadu.
So is there any precaution the railways could take while speeding through elephant corridors?
An initiative undertaken by the Wildlife Trust of India in the forests of Dehradun has shown that the mortalities can be reduced. The Rajaji National Park has 14 kilometres of railway track bisecting the park where elephants often cross for food and water. Through simple measures like slowing down the train, removal of sand banks that block the train driver’s view on sharp bends and clearing of bushes - elephant deaths from being hit by trains has now been reduced to nil.
So can project elephant initiate a similar exercise along the killer tracks of North Bengal?
Wildlife experts have requested railway officials to restrict the speed limit of trains plying through elephant corridors to 40-km/hr. So the question is will Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee step in and order her own ministry to take steps to save the elephants in her state?
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