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Two elephants killed in Odisha's Sundargarh district after being hit by train
A group of forest department which tried to stop the train by signalling it, said the train was at high speed despite in the area where elephant movement is well known.
Two elephants that had strayed from a herd of 15 jumbos in Odisha's Sundargarh district were killed after being hit by a parcel train late Wednesday night, forest officials said Thursday.
Additional conservator of forest of Rourkela, Tankadhar Behera said the parcel train hit the elephants near Mahipani in Bisra region of Sundergarh at around 1 am.
"The two elephants had separated from a herd of 15 elephants that were in the Bisra area last week. Around 30 staff of our department were crossing the railway track and so were the elephants when the speeding train, which was running at high speed, hit the two animals. Though our staff signaled the train to stop, it did not. It was criminal on the part of the train driver to speed up in an area where elephant movement is known," said Behera.
The forest department sent the carcasses for post-mortem Thursday morning.
Nishant Kumar, Assistant Railway Manager, Bondamunda, said diversion of the elephants’ movement might have led to the accident. "Restoration works have been completed and the running of trains on the route will be resumed soon. We will soon start a probe into the incident," he said.
In December last year, two elephants were knocked dead by trains in Sambalpur district in two separate incidents. On December 5, the Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity Express hit a tusker between Jujumura and Hatibari area of Sambalpur district killing the elephant on the spot. On December 20, another tusker was killed after the Puri-Surat Express train ran over it between Hatibari and Maneswar Railway stations under Sambalpur division.
In the last 10 years, 28 elephants have been killed in Odisha after being hit by trains.
