Pregnant Elephant Accidents With Train:LetzWave.BlogSpot.com

Pregnant Elephant Accidents With Train

Saturday, March 6, 2010 , Posted by LetzWave at 3:49 PM

Guwahati, February 28, 2010, An adult female elephant was killed and another seriously injured after a speeding goods train hit them on a railway track passing through Deepor Beel Ramsar site in the western fringe of Guwahati city in the wee hours today. According to eyewitness accounts, one female elephant was killed after being hit and dragged to some distance by the speeding train while another female elephant was seriously injured. The injured elephant was in advanced stage of pregnancy and gave birth to a calf immediately after the train hit it. The injured elephant than went inside the nearby jungle while forest officials later rescued the newborn calf from the accident site and brought it to the state zoo here. According to Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman Situsing Hajong, a goods train that was coming to Guwahati hit an adult elephant on the track along Azara-Kamakhya section while the elephant was trying to cross the track at around 4 am.There is standing instruction for trains to move at the speed of only 10 km per hour while travelling through Deepor Beel Ramsar site as it was part of an elephant movement corridor. However, eyewitnesses claimed that the train was on a high speed while hitting the elephant this morning and there was no fog in the atmosphere at that time.Another wild elephant was killed due to train-hit in the same area on May 6 last year. Four wild elephants including were killed after being hit by a train in Doldoli reserve forest in Karbi Anglong hill district on January 2 this year. In fact, there has been alarming number of elephant deaths in the state due to accidents on railway tracks. According to available figures, 56 wild elephants were run over of trains in different parts of Assam in 38 accidents on tracks during the past 10 years.