Guwahati: Three more wild elephants including a calf were killed by a speeding railway engine near Kampur in Nagaon district of central Assam in the wee hours of Saturday.
Two of the elephants were killed on the spot while one died of injury few hours later. With the incident, total number of elephants killed in the state due to train-hits went up to seven so far this month.
A forest official informed that the three elephants were hit by an up light engine that had left Kampur railway station at around 4:50 AM on Saturday.
The incident occurred between Kampur and Jamunamukh railway stations in Nagaon district.
Assam Forest Minister Promila Rani Brahma while expressing here anguish over the deaths of elephants said that the Railway authority needed to cooperate more with the forest department to prevent such accidents.
She said Deputy Commissioner of Nagaon district would be entrusted to inquire into the incident.
Meanwhile, Northeast Frontier Railway CPRO Pranav Jyoti Sharma said the mishap occurred though the railway authority had imposed a speed restriction of 30 Km per hour in the area after noticing movement of elephants in the area.
“In fact, the spot, where the mishap occurred on Saturday, does not fall within the elephant movements corridor as marked by the forest department.
It is about 13 km from the area where caution had been advised by the forest department,” Sharma said.
Forest officials said, the three slain elephants were members of a herd of about 50 elephants which had come down from the Kandali hills under Daboka reserved forest on search of food this winter.
The elephants collided with the train engine when the herd was crossing the railway track on their way back to the forest.
Earlier, on December 5, another three elephants – two pregnant females – were killed when the 15905 Up Kanyakumari-Dibrugarh Vivek Express had knocked them down near Jugijan, in Hojai district in Central Assam , about 15 km west of Saturday’s incident.
On December 6, another elephant was killed after being hit by a goods train between Rangjuli and Amjonga stations in Goalpara district in western Assam.
