Pregnant Elephant Dies After Being Hit By Goods Train In West Bengal
NDTV
According to the locals, the incident occurred when a pregnant elephant was crossing the railway track inside the Chapramari Reserve forest, through which the railway line runs.
Despite rigorous efforts by Indian Railways to prevent the elephant deaths due to railway accidents, a pregnant elephant was hit by a goods train in the Chapramari Reserve forest in Alipurduar district of West Bengal early this morning.
"The incident took place at 3:00 am in the morning. This was a goods train and according to the news I have received it was carrying dolomite. We will have to find out why goods trains are running at night because on this line movement of goods trains are restricted. There are speed restrictions also," Chief Conservator of Forest, Rajendra Jakhar told reporters.
"The railways will be able to tell you about the speed of the train after looking at their records but the nature of the impact was such that the foetus completely came out which shows the impact was severe. We also saw blood marks on a lot of sleepers which means the carcass was dragged for some distance," Mr Jakhar added.